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THE 

POPULAR HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATION 

OF THE 

HOLY SCRIPTURES 

INTO THE ENGLISH TONGUE. 

WITH SPECIMENS OF THE OLD ENGLISH VERSIONS. 


BY 

MRS. H/C. CON ANT, 

is ’ i 

Author of Translations of Neander’s Practical Commentaries. 


REVISED EDITION\ 


CONTINUING THE HISTORY TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

By Rev. THOMAS f. GONANT, D.D. 

9 


No other. Christian people can show a vernacular Bible with such a history as ours ; so consecrated 
by high purpose and noble sacrifice, so baptized in the tears and blood of faithful souls, so linked with 
the inmost life and history of the people .—Preface to the first edition. 


NEW YORK: 

I. K. FUNK & CO., Publishers, 
io and 12 Dey Street. 









M EXCHANGE 




* I 






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i mo. 
treat 0 

EDITOR’S PREFACE. 


The following history of the English Bible was first published in 
the year 1856. It was received with general favor, and was repub¬ 
lished without change in 1859. It was popular in its spirit and form ; 
and for the first time it brought before the reader, in moderate com¬ 
pass, the whole subject of English Bible translation. Its materials 
were drawn from all that had been written directly on the subject, 
and from every other source from which light could be obtained. A 
list of the authorities consulted, in the preparation of the work, is 
added at the end of the author’s preface. 

In preparing this revised edition, the history has been compared 
throughout with works bearing on the subject that have appeared since 
its first publication ; and such changes have been made as were found 
necessary to conform it to the present state of knowledge. The edi¬ 
tor is specially indebted to the new and accurate researches of Mr. 
Westcott, in his History of the English Bible, and to Dr. Philip 
Schaff’s Introduction to the American reprint of the Treatises of 
Trench, Lightfoot, and Ellicott, and to the Revision of the English 
version of the New Testament. 

A closing chapter is added by the editor, bringing the history down 
to the present time ; showing the steps by which the way has been 
gradually prepared for renewing the work of revision, under circum¬ 
stances more favorable, and with materials far more ample, than at 
any former period in English history. 

While these lines are going to the press, the Anglo-American revi¬ 
sion of the English New Testament is made public, and received here 
with general interest, and with a sale of the book unprecedented 
in the publication of any other work, so far as is known to the writer. 
That such is the case augurs well for the interest felt in the Divine 
Word, and in all that may contribute to the purity of its text, and 
render its teachings more clear and intelligible. T. J. C. 



AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 


' This volume was undertaken from the wish to meet a widely 
extended and increasing desire for information, in a popular form and 
within moderate limits, respecting the history of our English Bible. 
How came we by this Bible ? What were its antecedents ? In what 
religious, social, political condition of England had it its birth ? 
What influences determined its primitive character and form ? To 
what modifying agencies has it been subjected in the progress of its 
history ? These and similar questions are now, in the present awak¬ 
ened state of public interest on the subject of Bible translation, asked 
by multitudes of intelligent and thoughtful persons, who have neither 
the time nor the means for searching out the answers for themselves. 
The valuable works on the subject, already before the public, are not 
adapted to the wants of general readers, being chiefly useful as works 
of reference for bibliographical students. That of Anderson (Annals 
of the English Bible), though rich in valuable and interesting infor¬ 
mation for certain portions of the history, is deficient in others ; 
and it is, moreover, too voluminous, as well as too immethodical, to 
attract such as do not enjoy a superfluity of leisure and of patience. It 
has been my object in this volume simply to furnish such an account 
of the early English versions and revisions as may give a clear idea of 
their origin and leading characteristics, and of the general influence of 
each in moulding the religious history of the English race. This 
design admitted of greater conciseness, without abridging those his¬ 
torical and personal details which best exhibit the subject in its con¬ 
nection with actual human life.* 

Brief as the work is, however, the labor bestowed on its preparation 
has not been trifling. Indeed its very brevity is the result of no little 
labor. The length of time embraced in the history, and the variety 
of subjects and of characters necessarily introduced for its illustra¬ 
tion, required not only much diligent investigation for the collection 
of materials, but much labor in sifting them, in order to keep the 
work within limits suited to common readers. But the task, though 

* From these remarks it will be seen that a critical description of editions and 
copies does not come within the design of this volume. 



author’s preface. 


V 


toilsome, has been full of pleasantness ; and I shall count myself 
happy if it shall become the means of communicating to other minds 
a more lively and more intelligent interest in the subject of which it 
treats. No other Christian people can show a vernacular Bible with 
such a history as ours ; so consecrated by high purpose and noble 
sacrifice, so baptized in the tears and blood of faithful souls, so 
linked with the inmost life and history of the people. At what cost 
the Divine Word has been placed in the possession of the English 
race, and what it has done for that race, are matters which every 
Christian and every lover of his country has an interest in knowing. 
Without such knowledge, we can neither rightly estimate its value 
nor labor intelligently for the perpetuation of its influence. 

The principal works consulted in the preparation of this volume are 
the following : 

Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe ; by Robert Vaughan, D.D. 2 
vols. 8vo. London, 1828. 

John de Wycliffe, a Monograph ; by Robert Vaughan, D.D. 1853. 

The first of these works is not superseded by the second, which omits many interesting details of 
the earlier memoir. To the two I am chiefly indebted for the facts of Wickliffe’s history, and for 
the extracts from his writings. 

The History of the Life and Sufferings of the Reverend and Learned 
John Wicliffe, D.D. By John Lewis. London, 1720. 

Preface to Wicliffe’s Bible; edited by Forshall & Madden, Oxford, 1850. 

Henry’s History of Great Britain ; 4th ed. London, 1805. 

Of this writer the Halle Encyclopaedia (Ersch u. Gruber’s) says : “ The affairs of the church, 
the inner history of the people, government, manners, commerce, the arts and sciences, engaged his 
attention to a greater degree than they did that of Hume ; and all these he combines in a series of 
graphic and instructive delineations, the result of his own careful and impartial researches.” For the 
character of the Romish priesthood, and the condition of England under their sway, this author 
has been chiefly relied on in the present work. 

Henr. Knyghton, Chronica Anglic, (in Twysden’s Scriptores decern, 
Vol. II.). 

Hallam’s Middle Ages. 

Annals of the English Bible ; by Christopher Anderson. 8vo. London, 
1845. 2 vols. 

The materials for the personal history of Tyndale have been chiefly furnished by this work. 

Memoir of William Tyndale, by George Offor (prefixed to Bagster’s reprint 
of Tyndale’s New Testament, London, 1836). 

Introduction to Bagster’s Hexaplar New Testament. 

Writings of Tyndale and Frith. (Works of the Eng. Reformers, ed. 
by Thomas Russel, London, 1831.) 

Rudhart’s Thomas Morus, aus den Quellen bearbeitet ; 2te Ausg. Augs¬ 
burg, 1852. 

Foxe’s Acts and Monuments ; folio, London, 1641. 


VI 


author’s preface. 


Burnet’s History of the Reformation ; 2 vols., 4to, London, 1850. 

The Works of Sir Thomas More, Knyghte, sometime Lorde Chancellour 
of England, wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge ; 4to, pp. 1458. London, 
1557 . 

The only edition of his English writings. It was published by Rastell in the last year of Queen 
Mary’s reign ; and was dedicated to her majesty, as an important aid to her efforts for the re-estab- 
lishment of Romanism, 

Archbishop Parker, De Antiquit. Brit. Ecclesle ; London, 1729. 

Memorials of Miles Coverdale ; London, Samuel Bagster, 1838. 

Memoir of Miles Coverdale ; prefixed to Bagster's reprint of Coverdale’s 
translation of the Bible. 

Lewis’ History of the Translations of the Holy Bible into English ; 

London, 1818. 

Preface to the Genevan New Testament, 1557; Bagster’s fac-simile re¬ 
print, London. 

Preface to the Genevan Bible, and Dedication to Queen Elizabeth, 

1560 (from the Edition of 1583). 

Strype’s Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer ; 2 vols., 8vo. Oxford, 1840. 

Strype’s Life and Acts of Archbishop Parker, i vol. fol. London, 1740. 

Strype’s History of the Life and Acts of Archbishop Grindal ; 1 vol. 
fol. London, 1710. 

Strype’s Life and Acts of Archbishop Whitgift ; 1 vol. fol. London, 
1718. 

These Memoirs of the English Protestant Primates in the sixteenth century were written by their 
ardent admirer and apologist, himself a zealous High-Churchman. From his representations of the 
growth of Puritanism in the English Church, and the measures used for its suppression, has been 
drawn the account given of them in this volume. 

Fuller’s Church History ; 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1842. 

Strype’s Annals of the Reformation ; Oxford, 1824. 

Archbishop Parker’s Preface to the Bishops’ Bible. 

Hefele, Der Cardinal Ximenes ; Tubingen, 1851. 

Bishop Barlow’s Account of the Hampton Court Conference ; London, 
1604. 

Wilkins, Concilia Magne Brit, et Hib. London, 1737. 

Gell’s Essay towards the Amendment of the last English Translation 
of the Bible ; 1 vol. fol. 1659. 

Fulke’s Defence of the English Bible (ed. for the Parker Society, Cam¬ 
bridge, 1843). 

Whitelocke’s Memorials of the English Affairs ; London, 1732. 

Journals of the House of Commons, published by order of the House. 

Tischendorf's Reise in den Orient ; Leipzig, 1846. 

Translators’ Preface to King James’ Revision (Field’s Edition, 2 vols. fol. 
London, 1659), and Dedication to the King. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

The Bible the People’s Charter. Relation of Wickliffe to his Age. 1-4 

CHAPTER II. 

The Papal Army in England. The Secular Clergy. The Monks. The Mendicant 
Friars. 5-18 


CHAPTER III. 

Counter-Influences ; their Inefficiency. Edward III. The Barons. Magna 
Charta. The Universities. House of Commons. 19-24 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Bible-Apostle. Opposes the Mendicant Friars, on the Ground of Scripture. 
Summoned to Parliament. Argues against the Papal Claim to Tribute. Advocates the 
Exclusion of Churchmen from Civil Office.. Becomes Theological Professor at Oxford. 
His Teachings Anticipate those of the Reformation. 25-32 

CHAPTER V. 

The Pope and Bishops in the Field. Wickliffe sent as Ambassador to the Papal 
Court. Cited before the Convocation as a Heretic. Scene at St. Paul’s. Five Papal 
Bulls for his Apprehension. His Advice to Parliament. Trial at Lambeih. Vindicates 
the Civil and the Ecclesiastical Rights of the Laity. Rescued by the Londoners.. 33-38 

CHAPTER VI. 

The New-Testament Ministry Revived. Wickliffe’s Views of the Clerical Office. 
Labors of his "Poore Priestes.” Alarm of the Romish Clergy. Fraudulent Legis¬ 
lation. True Apostolic Succession. 39-43 

CHAPTER VII. 

Wickliffe Attacks the Citadel of Papal Influence. The Catholic Theory 
of Communion. Wickliffe'^ Protestant stand-point. Silenced at Oxford. Retires to 
Lutterworth. 44-48 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Wickliffe’s Writings for the People. Originates Religious Tracts. Influence 
of his Popular Writings . 49 “ 5 r 


CHAPTER IX. 


The First English Bible. Wickliffe’s previous Labors in Bible-translation. Right 
of the Laity to the Scriptures. His Version made fiom the Vulgate. Wickliffe’s 
Death. 5 2— 55 











Vlll 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER X. 

Influence of Wickliffe’s Version. England's only Bible for a hundred and 
thirty years. Its Wide Diffusion. Rapid Growth of the Spirit of Religious Freedom. 
Checked by Henry IV. The Lollards. Statutes against Wickliffe's Bible. Its Char¬ 
acter and Claims. 56-61 

CHAPTER XI. 

Wickliffe’s Influence Abroad. Effect of his Writings in Bohemia. Huss, and 
Jerome of Prague. Council of Constance. Sentence against Wickliffe's Writings. 
His Body condemned to be Disinterred and Burned. Execution of the Decree. In¬ 
creased Spread of his Views in Bohemia. Bohemian Bibles. Influence of Bohemia on 
the Reformation. Wickliffe’s Relation to Modern Christianity. 62-65 

CHAPTER XII. 

Religious Aspects of England. Wickliffe’s Bible, and the Lollards. Revival of 
Learning in the Schools. Spread of the Relormation in England. 66-71 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Tyndale’s New Testament. Tyndale’s early History. His Youthful Attempts at 
Bible-translation. Seeks the Patronage of Tunstal, Bishop of London. Finds that the 
Bible cannot be Translated in England. Humphrey Monmouth his Friend and Patron. 
Translates his New Testament in Hamburg. Goes to Cologne to Print it. Aided by 
English Merchants. The Bible Hater. Councillor Rincke. Tyndale Obliged 
to Flee from Cologne to Worms. Change of Plans. The New Testament in England. 
The Secret Search. Fyslie’s “Supplication of Beggars." Thomas Garrett. 
Scenes at Oxford and Cambridge. Dr. Barnes’ Trial. Burning of New Testaments. 
T he King Enlisted. Luther’s Blunder. Royal Prohibition of Tyndale's Trans¬ 
lation. Efforts for its Suppression on the Continent. The Bishops on the Alert. 
Archbishop W arham buys up New Testaments. Wolsey as Vicar-General. Trial of Ar¬ 
thur and Bilney. Constant Multiplication and Spread of the New Testament... 72-89 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Tyndale’s Reformatory Writings. “ Parable of the Wicked Mammon." “The 
Obedience of a Christian Man.” Light Thrown by these Writings on the State of the 
Times, and the Extortions of the Clergy. Tyndale’s View of Church-offices and Sac¬ 
raments. Defends the Right of the Laity to the Bible. Theological Training in the 
Universities. The Bible the only Safe Guide. 90-101 

CHAPTER XV. 

Cardinal Wolsey’s Measures to Silence Tyndale. Application to the Prin¬ 
cess-Regent of Brabant for his Arrest. Imprisonment of his Friend Harman. The 
British Merchant takes Reprisals. Councillor Rincke Overreached. Tyndale Safe in 
Marburg. 102-106 


CHAPTER XVI. 

The New Antagonist. Character of Sir Thomas More. His Early Connection 
with Erasmus and the Cause of Church-Reform. Spirit and Sentiments of his Uto- 
P’ a . 107-111 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Reformer Transformed. Alarmed for the Ancient Faith. Distrusts the Ref¬ 
ormation as Revolutionary. More s Inward Religious History. Characteristics of his 
Controversial Writings for the People. His Fundamental Principle—the Infallibility of 
the Church. The Church the Authoritative Interpreter of Scripture.113-121 









TABLE OF CONTENTS. ix 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Shall the People have the Bible ? More Concedes the Principle of Vernacular 
Translation. Advises Postponement to a more Favorable Period. Grounds of his Op¬ 
position to Tyndale’s Translation. Contrast with Tyndale’s Views. Persecuting 
Spirit of the Anti-Bible Principle. Tyndale’s Challenge Unanswered.122-134 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Sir Thomas More as Lord Chancellor. The Civil Power now takes the Lead in 
Persecution. Royal Manifesto against Heretics. Grand movement against Heretical 
Books. The Scripture in the Vernacular declared Injurious. Royal Proclamation 
against Tyndale’s Writings. Tunstal’s Bible-burning. How he Obtained the Bibles. 
More Avows himself a Persecutor. Defends the oath ex-officio. His Opinion of Juries. 
Advocates the Violation of Safe-conducts Granted to Heretics. More’s Reverse. Can¬ 
not Violate his Conscience. His Bitterness toward Heretics Unchanged.135-144 


CHAPTER XX. 

The Royal Patroness. Counter Influences. Anne Boleyn’s connection with the 
Reformation. Richard Harman. Tyndale’s Gift. Anne's Influence in favor of the 
Bible. 145-149 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Martyrdom of Tyndale. Efforts to Entrap Tyndale. The English Envoy, 
Stephen Vaughan. Interviews with Tyndale. Sir Thomas More, the Instigator of 
these Measures. Vaughan’s Plea for Religious Liberty. The New Envoy ; his Efforts 
to seize Tyndale. The Reformer’s Life at Antwerp. The Bishops’ Plot. Tyndale’s 
Apprehension. Thomas Pointz. The Decree of Augsburg. Tyndale’s Condemna¬ 
tion and Death... 150-162 


CHAPTER XXII. 

Triumph of the Principle. Truth not Dependent on its Champions. Review of ~ 
the Progress of the Bible up to Tyndale’s Death. Thomas Crumwell; grounds of his 
interest in the People’s Bible. Matthew’s Bible. Its Singular Introduction into Eng¬ 
land. Authorized by the King for use in Churches. Allowed to all Classes. Henry’s 
zeal; stringent requisitions in Favor of the Bible; copies placed in Churches for the 
Use of the People. Its Welcome by the Commonalty. Prelates obliged to Counten¬ 
ance it. Romish Dogmas in Bad Repute. Henry’s Alarm at the Influence of the Bible. 
Restrictions on its use. The Six Articles. Character of Edward’s Reign. The Prin¬ 
ciple Triumphant. The Protestant Principle, as Applied to Bible-Translation. Per¬ 
manence of Tyndale’s New Testament. 163-177 

CHAPTER XXIII. » 

Three Later Versions. Coverdale’s Bible. Reasons for the Undertaking. Utility 
of Various Translations. Character of the Version. Hindrances. Coverdale, the 
Overseer of the Great Bible (Tyndale’s). His nonconformity and sufferings. Taver¬ 
ner’s Bible. Cranmer’s Bible. Early Life of Cranmer. Veneration for the 
Scriptures. Influence as Primate in Favor of Vernacular Translation. Revision of 
Tyndale’s Version. Preface. Counter-plot of the Bishops. The Anglican Church. 
Cranmer’s Intolerance. Treatment of Gardiner; of Hooper; of Sectaries and Here¬ 
tics. Essential Vice of a State Church. Vital Distinction between the Anglican and 
the Romish Church. Progress of the Bible under Edward VI. 178-191 










X 


TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Reign of Terror. Character of Queen Mary. Her Early Misfortunes. First 
Steps on Her Accession. Obscurantism Inaugurated. Protestant Exiles. Romanism 
Re-established. Unparalleled Cruelties. The Congregations. Evidences of the 
Progressive Influence of the Bible. i92-199 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Genevan Bible. English Exiles. Spirit of the Age in Respect to Bible-Transla- 
tion. Proposal of a New Version. Zeal of the Lay-exiles. John Bodleigh. Peculiar 
Advantages at Geneva. Calvin’s Preface to the New Testament. Scholarship of the 
Genevan Bible. Division into Verses. Becomes the Family Bible of England. Causes 
of its Success. Its Agency in the Development of Puritanism. Its Influence not 
wholly Beneficial. 200-206 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Bishops’ Bible. Preliminary View. Liberal Spirit of the Returned Exiles. 
Counter-policy of Elizabeth. Action of Her First Parliament. The Court of High 
Commission. The Star Chamber. The Reformed Clergy Succumb to the Queen ; 
Establishment of Uniformity. Nonconformity the Nurse of Civil Freedom. List of 
Dangerous Innovations. Grounds of Puritan Dissent. Measures of Archbishop Parker. 
Trial of Sampson and Humphrey ; Citation of the London Ministers ; Oppressive 
Injunction Coverdale and Fox. Leading Traits of the Conflicting Parties.. 207-220 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Bishops’ Bible —Continued. Archbishop Parker the Projector and Overseer of 
the Work. His Motives. Continued Influence of the Genevan Version. Anti-Epis¬ 
copal Feature of the Church-Bible. Parker’s Preface. Scholarship of the Bishops’ 
Bible. Its Sectarian Character. Subsequent Restoration of Readings from the Vul¬ 
gate. 221-228 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Rhemish or Douay Bible. Translators’ Views of Vernacular Bibles. Policy of 
the Romish Church. Cardinal Ximenes. Reasons for this Translation. Its Character¬ 
istics. Influence of the Douay Bible. 229 232 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

The Common Version. State of Parties at the Death of Elizabeth. Reactionary 
Influence of Persecution. Prospect of a Puritan Sovereign. James’ non commital 
Policy. Summons the Hampton Court Conference. Triumph of the Prelatical 
Party. Royal Epistle. New Translation Proposed by the Puritans. Motives of James’ 
Concurrence. State of Public Opinion. Hugh Broughton's efforts for a Revision of 
the Church-Bible. The Puritanic Influence of the Genevan Version. The King’s 

P Ian . 2 33- 2 44 


CHAPTER XXX. 

The Common Version —Continued. The King’s liberal arrangements for Securing 
and Rewarding Competent hevisors. Rules of Translation prescribed by the King. 
Principles involved in these Rules. Their Influence on the Character of the Version. 
Its Scholarship. Contemporaneous Criticism. Obstacles to its Reception, within and 
without the Church. Measures for a New Translation. The Just Claims of the Com¬ 
mon Version. Leading Characteristics and Influences of English Bible-Transla- 








TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


XI 


CHAPTER XXXI. 

Demand for a more Thorough Revision. Early movements for Revision. Action 
of the Long Parliament. Robert Gell's Essay. Bishop Lowth’s Translation of Isaiah. 
Gilbert Wakefield's Version. Dr. George Campbell’s Work. Archbishop Newcome's 
Critical Versions and Historical View. The Advance in Learning. Modern Era of 
Textual Criticism. Discovery of Ancient MSS. Labors of Mill, Griesbach, Tischen- 
dorf, and others. What Modern Scholarship has Accomplished. Discoveries in Archae- 
ology, etc. American Bible Union. Versions of the Five Clergymen. The Anglo- 
American Revision. Rules for the Guidance of Translators. The New Testament 
Published... 259-266 


APPENDIX. 

I. Specimens of the Early English Versions. 268-281 

II. The Immaculate Conception. 282 

III. The Soldier’s Bible. 282-284 














































































































* 






. 


























CHAPTER I. 


THE BIBLE THE PEOPLE’S CHARTER. RELATION OF WICKLIFFE TO 

HIS AGE. 

It was a great day for England, when John Wickliffe first con¬ 
ceived the idea of giving to his countrymen the.WHOLE Bible in the 
common tongue. The execution of that idea is the leading event of 
the fourteenth century. It would not be too much, perhaps, to call 
it the leading event in Anglo-Saxon history. 

To Wickliffe belongs the peculiar honor of having rekindled, from 
the ashes of the past, the doctrine of the essential worth and equal 
rights of men. His claim that, in regard to the highest interest of 
humanity, all men are equal ; namely, in the right of each to know 
for himself, and to obey the will of God ; that here the king can claim 
nothing above the serf, the priest nothing above the layman ; the 
absolute supremacy of the individual conscience in matters of relig¬ 
ion ; this involved the ultimate recognition of all inferior rights. 

This idea, which breathes through the whole spirit of primitive 
Christianity, had been long lost to the world. It was indeed alien to 
the spirit of the world. The most enlightened nations of antiquity 
knew it not. The wisest and purest of pagan philosophers, who 
searched deepest into the character of God and the destiny of men, 
never attained to this glorious and ennobling truth. Even when they 
come so near it as to discern a special providence guiding the affairs 
of individuals, it is still only the great men, the patriots and philoso¬ 
phers, whom they deem worthy of such care. “ Great men,” say 
they, “ enjoy the peculiar oversight and influence of the gods ; infe¬ 
rior persons they disregard.” The highest truths, those especially 
which respect the nature of God, must be veiled in mysteries and 
sealed by oaths from the vulgar rabble, who are to be held in subjec¬ 
tion by scarecrows and mummeries, which the wise ones laugh at. 
Even their Elysium was peopled only by the spirits of sages and 
heroes. Thus were the masses of the human race abandoned, to live 
and die like the brutes which perish. 

When Christ appeared, there dawned a new day for the poor and 
down-trodden. He made it the distinguishing glory of his ministry 
to preach the Gospel to the poor. The Christian communities, which 


2 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


owed their existence to the immediate effusion of his Spirit after his 
ascension, were strictly companies of brethren, with one Head and 
Lawgiver, their risen and glorified Lord. Men from the most diverse 
conditions of society here met on terms of perfect equality ; united by 
a noble and endearing relationship, whose ties were stronger than 
those of caste, or blood, or nation. What a foundation was here laid 
for the protection and elevation of the weak and defenceless classes of 
society ! 

With the decline of the apostolic spirit in other respects, this idea 
also faded from the Christian consciousness. A splendid hierarchy, 
appointed to rule God’s heritage, was an institution utterly at variance 
with the conception of the Church as a community of brethren. With 
the growth and consolidation of this mighty spiritual power, the lay 
element in the Church continually declined in importance, till at 
length the people became the mere tools and bond-slaves of the priest¬ 
hood. 

The aim of the Romish prelacy was no less than the entire mo¬ 
nopoly of all ecclesiastical and all secular rule. The vital element of 
power, knowledge, it had gradually withdrawn wholly into its own 
hands. It has frequently been made the subject of praise to the 
papal clergy, that they alone were the depositaries of learning, at a 
period when all other classes of society were sunk in ignorance and 
barbarism. Should it not rather be accounted their shame ? Who 
can doubt, that if the hosts of the Romish priesthood had encouraged 
the general diffusion of knowledge, the dark ages would have been 
ages of light ? Could not the parish priest have awakened, in the 
humble portion of his flock, that spirit of improvement which is every¬ 
where, even in the most debased heathen countries, the fruit of Pro¬ 
testant missions ? Could not the monastery have become a fountain 
of intelligence to all the adjacent community ? Boast not of the light 
thus hid within the cloister, for the use and delight of its few holy 
inmates, while thousands of their fellow-creatures groped, under 
their very w r alls, in the blindness of the deepest midnight ! 

But a general diffusion of knowledge, and the monopoly of power 
in the hands of a few, are ideas entirely incompatible with each other. 
The power of the hierarchy demanded the ignorance of the masses. 
The policy by which it reached its end was masterly. When the Holy 
Scriptures were taken from the common people,’ they lost the charter 
of their rights as men ; in time, the very consciousness of their man¬ 
hood. Thus the great body of all the nations of Christendom sunk 
from one degree of debasement to another, till they became the prey 
of every spoiler ; till the people, the cultivators of the soil, the indus- 


THE BIBLE THE PEOPLE’S CHARTER. 


3 


trious artisans, the actual producers of the national wealth, had no 
power, no rights. They were the rabble, the vulgar herd, the mob, 
to be used or abused without limit or mercy, for the benefit of their 
masters. 

Nothing could more significantly indicate their social position, than 
the scantiness of contemporaneous information in regard to it. His¬ 
tory relates the doings of Popes and Councils, of Kings and Nobles. 
But it seems rarely to have occurred to the learned chronicler of the 
times, that the condition of the people constitutes any part of history. 
Now and then some social earthquake rends the veil, and we catch a 
glimpse which makes the heart ache ; for we see there, spite of igno¬ 
rance, superstition, and all the vices of their degraded state, living 
human souls, burning and writhing under the keen sense of outrage 
and oppression ; capable, therefore, of sweet affections, of generous 
and noble deeds, of goodness and piety. At some new or more gall¬ 
ing wrong, outraged humanity has overburst the bounds of discreet 
submission. The rude mass, for a moment, heaves convulsively ; 
agonizing cries for redress, fierce threats of vengeance, disturb the 
air ; and then it is crushed down again by the iron hand of power, to 
weep, and bleed, and curse in silence. 

Such was the condition of a majority of the inhabitants of England 
in the fourteenth century. Where now was help and redemption to 
be looked for ? The barons had already, a hundred years before, 
wrested from the monarch the recognition of their own rights, the 
famous Magna Charta. But on their side was wealth and power. 
With his immense landed possessions, his castle-fortress, his thou¬ 
sands of retainers, each baron was a petty king. Combination among 
these powerful lords was equivalent to success. But the poor, unlet¬ 
tered, unarmed populace gained nothing by this triumph of their mas¬ 
ters. Their only hope, though they knew it not, was in the restora¬ 
tion of what will ever be the only Magna Charta of the weak— The 
Holy Scriptures. 

Then arose the Man of the Age. Among the brilliant and impos¬ 
ing forms that crowd the arena of that stirring time—the magnificent 
Edward III., and his chivalrous son, the martial barons, the gorgeous 
array of ecclesiastical dignitaries—stands alone and preeminent the 
apostolic form of John Wickliffe, Rector of Lutterworth. 

We call him the man of the age, who into a dead Past drops the 
seed of a living Future ; who infuses into the social mass leavening 
ideas, which, sooner or later, by their inherent quickening energy, 
work essential changes in the inner and outer life of society. This 
John Wickliffe did. The supreme and binding authority of the Holy 


4 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Scriptures as the guide of Christian faith and life ; the right of all 
men, without distinction, to the possession of the Scriptures ; these 
are the living thoughts which Wickliffe cast into the soil of the four¬ 
teenth century. They inspired the labors of his active years ; they 
culminated in that great gift to the Anglo-Saxon race, the Holy Bible 
in the common tongue. 

To us, in this later age, these ideas may seem too obvious to merit 
the place here assigned them. Not so when first announced. Then, 
they startled like an earthquake. And well they might ; for they 
struck at the root of that vast system of spiritual fraud, by which 
merchandise had so long been made of the souls of men. 

It may seem, also, that too wide and lasting an influence is ascribed 
to Wickliffe’s version of the Scriptures. A work circulated only in 
manuscript, and at a period when so few of the laity acquired even 
the first rudiments of learning, cannot, it may be thought, have made 
a very deep impression on the national character. But when we take 
into account Wickliffe’s preparatory labors, for more than thirty 
years, it will be seen that no book, before the invention of printing, 
ever enjoyed such advantages for becoming generally known. His 
conflicts with the Papacy at home and abroad, involving political and 
social questions of vital interest to the nation, his preaching and his 
writings in the despised vernacular, and the labors of his “ poore 
priestes” (those pious itinerants whom he had sent forth over the 
length and breadth of England), had awakened a mental activity, a 
spirit of inquiry, before unknown : and in numerous instances an 
earnest religious life. The attention of all classes had thus been 
turned to the Holy Scriptures. Among high and low, there was that 
hunger for the word of God, whose power to conquer difficulties we, 
in this day of intellectual and spiritual fullness, can but imperfectly 
appreciate. 

The details of the following chapters will enable us to estimate 
more perfectly the labors and influence of this great man, the Father 
of English Bible-Translation. 


f 


CHAPTER II. 




THE PAPAL ARMY IN ENGLAND. 

We first find Wickliffe in active conflict with the errors and abuses 
of the age, about the middle of the fourteenth century. Let us briefly 
survey the religious circumstances of England at that time. 

At the first glance, we observe three leading forces, which, from the 
date of the Conquest, had been contending for supremacy in Eng¬ 
land, viz. : the Crown, the Barons, and the Papacy. The monarchs 
strove continually to stretch the royal prerogative into absolutism ; 
the barons to maintain and increase their feudal rights at the expense 
of the crown ; while the Pope aimed at nothing less than to make 
England a mere appanage of Rome. In this great game, the Papacy 
had proved itself by far the shrewder hand. Siding now with the 
king, now with the nobles, it had improved every internal division in 
the kingdom, every appeal to itself as supreme arbiter, for securing 
new advantages and a firmer hold. It had now an ecclesiastical 
army in England, countless in numbers, so thoroughly organized and 
so bound by self-interest to its will, as to render the Pontiff of Rome 
the controlling power in the English realm. This army was arranged 
in three grand divisions. First, 

THE SECULAR CLERGY. 

This body, including bishops with their subordinate dignitaries, and 
the various ranks of parish priests under their control, were charged 
with the spiritual oversight and instruction of the community.- To 
the office of the prelates were attached immense landed estates, 
princely revenues and high civil, as well as ecclesiastical powers ; the 
lower clergy, residing on livings among the people, were supported 
chiefly by tithes levied on their respective parishes. 

The corruption of this body throughout Christendom had given 
rise, even so early as the fourth century, to monachism. Their 
frightful profligacy in the time of Wickliffe was mainly due to three 
causes, all of which originated directly from their connection with the 
See of Rome. 

ist. Their exemption, in common with all other orders of the 
clergy, from civil jurisdiction. A clergyman, of whatever offence 





6 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


against the laws of the land he might be guilty, could not be tried by 
any civil court of the rpalm. All such offenders were claimed by the 
Church, whose tribunals, subject only to appeals to Rome, dealt so 
tenderly with her beloved sons, that the land groaned under the 
crimes of its religious teachers. It was publicly stated to Henry II. 
by his judges, that during the first ten years of his reign, more than a 
hundred murders had been committed by clergymen, besides thefts, 
robberies, and other crimes, for which they could not punish them.* 
Successive English sovereigns strove with all their might to wrest 
from them so dangerous an immunity. But this independence of 
secular government being essential to the Pontiff’s absolute control 
over his vassals, their morals, and the welfare of the country, were of 
no weight in the balance. Thus, early in this century, an effort hav¬ 
ing been made by Edward II. to bring the clergy under some subjec¬ 
tion to the laws, Pope Clement directed a bull to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, complaining “ that clerks invested with the sacerdotal 
character, and shining with the splendor of pontifical dignity, were 
tried by laymen, condemned, and hanged, when found guilty of rob¬ 
bery or murder, to the great provocation of the Supreme King, who 
hath forbidden the secular power to touch his anointed.” He 
requires, therefore, that the grievance be redressed, on the penalty of 
excommunication to the offending monarch and his kingdom. 

2d. Their enforced celibacy. The native English clergy long 
resisted the imposition of this part of the Romish policy ; but were at 
length compelled to bow to the iron system, which sought to bind 
them to the central power by the obliteration of every tie of family 
and country. The name of Anselm, shine as it may in the history of 
systematic theology, should be forever infamous to the friend of 
humanity, for the pitiless rigor with which he enforced this measure. 
In 1102, he held an ecclesiastical council at London, where no fewer 
than ten canons were made for this single object. All priests, even 
the very lowest, were commanded to put away their wives immedi¬ 
ately, not to suffer them to live on any lands belonging to the Church, 
never to see or speak to them, except in cases of the greatest necessity 
and in the presence of two or three witnesses. “ Those unhallowed 
wretches who refused, were instantly to be deposed and excommuni¬ 
cated, and all their goods, as well as the goods and persons of their 
wives, as in the case of adulteresses, were to be forfeited to the bishop 
of the diocese. ”f Succeeding prelates followed the lead of Anselm, 
and episcopal and legantine councils urged the measure, till the long 


Henry’s Hist., vol. vi. p. 59. 


f Henry, vol. v. p. 307. 


THE PAPAL ARMY IN ENGLAND. 7 

struggle ended in the final establishment of celibacy, and the secular 
clergy were sealed to utter and irreclaimable profligacy. 

3d. The sale of clerical offices. The claim of the Papacy to the 
control of the English benefices, asserted centuries before, but long 
withstood by the secular power, was at this time fully established in 
practice. The Pope of Rome was now farmer-general of the English 
Church. He who could pay highest was sure of the place in market, 
whether it were a country parish, or the Primacy of England ; and 
the buyer must in turn, farm it out in the way which would bring the 
largest percentage on the cost. The richest prizes fell to Italians, 
parasites of the Pope, some of whom, though unable to speak a word 
of English, and who had never set foot on English soil, held twenty, 
thirty, nay, sqme of them fifty and sixty valuable benefices in the 
English Church. On the revenues thus obtained they lived in mag¬ 
nificence at Rome, and laid up enormous fortunes, notwithstanding 
the large yearly sums paid out of them into the papal treasury. The 
resident clergy who held of such masters must, of necessity, be like 
their masters. An honest, merciful, conscientious priest stood no 
chance of promotion under such a system. Hence, as we learn from 
Wickliffe, men who were too poor or too conscientious to pay the 
required bribes, were virtually excluded from the sacred office, what¬ 
ever might be their piety and talents. Thus the professed ministers 
of salvation were converted into an army of Romish bailiffs, whose 
great business it was to enrich their masters and themselves out of the 
plunder of the people, and whose anathemas were launched from the 
pulpit against those who withheld tithes, as worse than adulterers, 
murderers, and blasphemers.* 


* “General excommunications,” as they were called, which came into use 
about the middle of the thirteenth century, “ were,” says Henry, “at first de¬ 
nounced chiefly against such as injured the clergy by detaining their tithes, de¬ 
frauding them of any of their dues, or stealing anything belonging to the Church. 
They were to be published by every parish priest in his holy vestments, with bells 
tolling and candles lighted, before the whole congregation, in the mother tongue, 
on Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and All-Haliows-day. That these excommuni¬ 
cations might make the greater impression on tender consciences or timorous 
natures, they contained the most horrible infernal curse that could be devised : 

6 Let them be accursed eating and drinking ; walking and sitting ; speaking and 
holding their peace ; waking and sleeping ; rowing and riding ; laughing and 
weeping ; in house and in field ; on water and on land, in all places. Cursed be 
their head and their thoughts ; their eyes and their ears : their tongues and their 
lips ; their teeth and their throats ; their shoulders and their breasts ; their feet 
and their legs ; their thighs and their inwards. Let them remain accursed from 
the bottom of the fodt to the crown of the head, unless they bethink themselves 


8 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


THE MONKS. 

The Monks, known also as the Regular Clergy, and the Religious 
Orders, lived in small communities by themselves, having taken the 
vows of perpetual chastity, poverty and seclusion. 

We have no right to doubt that monachism was, in its origin, a sin¬ 
cere attempt to revive the piety of the primitive Church ; or that it did 
for a time check the progress of corruption, and by the cultivation of 
learning, shed an ameliorating influence into the darkness and barbar¬ 
ism of the times. But it had an inherent vice in its constitution—a 
want of adaptation to the nature of man. It was a morbid, not a 
healthy, offshoot of Christianity. For a while, the spirit infused into 
it by its austere founders maintained supremacy. But with the 
growth of worldly power and wealth, this artificial life gradually died 
out, and the latent evils of the system developed themselves in loath¬ 
some luxuriance. Ambition, avarice, and the grossest forms of vice 
took the place of ascetic virtue. An overwrought spiritualism 
reacted into a swinish sensualism. Monasteries became the lazar- 
houses of Christendom. Such do we find them in England in the 
fourteenth century. 

The wealth of the English monks at this period almost passes be¬ 
lief. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the endowment of 
monasteries was a mania in Christendom. Lands, buildings, precious 
stones, gold and silver, were lavished upon them with unsparing prod¬ 
igality. Rich men, disgusted with the world, or conscience-stricken 
for their sins, not unfrequently entered the cloister and made over to 
it their whole property. During the crusading epidemic, many mort¬ 
gaged their estates to the religious houses for ready money, who never 
returned, or were too much impoverished to redeem them. In this 
way vast riches accrued to their establishments. They understood, to 
perfection, all the traditional machinery of the Church for extracting 
money from high and low. The exhibition of relics, the performance 
of miracles, and above all the sale of indulgences, and of masses for 
the dead,* formed an open sluice through which a steady golden 
stream poured into the monastic treasury. 

and come to satisfaction. And just as this candle is deprived of its present light, 
so let them be deprived of their souls in hell.’ ” 

* The will of Lord Hastings, made long before his death, and indicating, there¬ 
fore, a common usage of the time, (and this so late as the reign of Richard III.) 
gives some idea of the wealth realized from the source last named. After other 
specifications, he bequeaths to ten conventual establishments, property of vari¬ 
ous kinds, amounting in value to not less than fifty thousand ‘dollars of our time, 


THE PAPAL ARMY IN ENGLAND. 


9 


Of the extent and magnificence of their establishments, and their 
sumptuous style of living, we have a sufficient index in the fact, that 
they often entertained the sovereign with his whole retinue when on a 
royal progress, and that Parliaments and State Councils were some¬ 
times held in their spacious halls. We must not fancy the English 
monastery as a gloomy, isolated residence, where emaciated anchorites 
wept and fasted, and prayed their lives away in holy conflict with sin 
and Satan. No more cheerful and imposing sight could meet the 
traveler’s eye than the stately Abbey, with its church of costliest 
architecture, its abbatial palace, its cloisters, dormitories, stables, and 
numerous offices, its bowling-alleys, fish-ponds, walks and gardens, all 
enclosed by the embattled wall with its grand, sculptured gates ; 
while outside clustered the humble dwellings of the dependent ten¬ 
antry, and the broad Abbey lands with their beautiful variety of 
grain-fields, orchards, vineyards, pastures stocked with well-fed herds 
and forests swarming with game, stretching beyond the limit of the 
eye.* Within these little territories the Abbots reigned as sovereign 
princes, coined their own money, decided at their tribunals all civil 
and criminal as well as ecclesiastical cases, and exercised the power 
of life and death. 

The Abbey kitchen, cellars, and refectory bore witness to the care 
bestowed on the well-being of its holy inmates. They did full justice 
to the bountiful provision thus made for their growth and edification. 
The Abbey cook was in great odor of sanctity among his brethren. 
The historian of Croyland Abbey gratefully records the pious disposi¬ 
tion of Brother Lawrence Chateres, cook of that monastery, who, 
“ animated by the love of God and zeal for religion,” had given forty 
pounds for the recreation of the convent with the milk of almonds on 
fish-days. By the help of this nourishing little delicacy, “served,” 
by direction of the authorities, ” with the finest bread and best 
honey,” the brethren might hope to sustain those trying Fridays 
when the bill of fare only numbered from ten to twenty dishes. Well 
might the old ballad sing : 

on condition of a perpetual yearly service “ for the sowles of me and my wife, 
myn ancestors, and all Christian sowles,” to be performed “ solemnly with note, 
Placebo and-Dirige, and on the morrow mass of requiem with note.” To ensure 
a handsome start on the ascent to bliss, he further directs that, as soon as notice 
of his death is received,” a thousand priests shall say a thousand Placebo and 
Dirige with a thousand masses for my sowle, in oon day, if reasonably possible.” 
Alas for the poor who must begin at the foot of the ladder, aided only by the 
stray provision “ for all Christian sowles ”! How hardly shall they that have not 
riches enter the kingdom of heaven !—so reads this Romish gospel. 

* The lands of Fountains’ Abbey extended thirty miles without interruption. 


10 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


“ O the monks o’ Melrose made gude kale 
On Friday, when they fasted !” 

Truly, it was something of a chasm which separated these monks 
from those which Anthony, ten centuries before, gathered around him 
in the deserts of Upper Egypt. 

Their profligacy was equal to their luxury. Those hells of vice, 
uncovered in the monasteries by the commissioners of Henry VIII. in 
the sixteenth century, were not the growth of that age alone. Such 
as they were then they were two centuries before, and the cry that 
went up from them to the ear of heaven was like that of Sodom and 
Gomorrah. 

These establishments, with all their accumulations of property and 
influence, were subject to no jurisdiction within the realm. Formerly, 
they had been amenable to the bishops of the diocese in which they 
were located. But this did not suit the policy of the Romish Pontiff, 
whose power and gains were best promoted by keeping the different 
divisions of his army quite distinct from each other, united in nothing 
but their common opposition to the civil government and their com¬ 
mon dependence on himself. He had, therefore, exempted the 
monasteries, one by one, from subjection to episcopal authority, and 
made them directly answerable to himself. The monks at first re¬ 
joiced at their escape from the bishops ; but soon found that they had 
exchanged their tyranny for that of a harder master. Their interior 
affairs were now under the Pontiff’s immediate cognizance and direc¬ 
tion ; and neither service nor money could be denied to a superior 
from whom so much was to be hoped and feared. 

In some respects the Monks were, without doubt, public benefac¬ 
tors. The Abbey lands were the best cultivated in England ; and 
furnished an example of good husbandry which, in the course of 
time, imparted a stimulus to the agricultural interests of the whole 
country. But it takes free and hopeful men to be benefited by such 
an example ; and at this period, the burden of political and clerical 
oppression lay like an incubus on the capacities of the people. Father 
Oberlin, the good Swiss pastor, could change his rocky Alpine valley 
into a paradise as if by miracle. It was indeed by a miracle, such as 
Monk never wrought—the transformation of the dull boors of the 
valley into beings who had something to love, and something to live 
for. 

The hospitality and charity of the Monks has also been celebrated. 
Let full justice be done them in these respects. Yet at a time when 
travelers were as scarce as diamonds, the tax on their hospitality 
could not have been very heavy ; and the jovial brethren no doubt 


THE PAPAL ARMY IN ENGLAND. 


11 

regarded the news brought by the visitor from distant parts, as pay¬ 
ment in full for his three days’ food and lodging. Their charity to 
the poor was precisely such as has always been witnessed in connec¬ 
tion with the Romish Church ; a charity often liberal to prodigality, 
but founded on the degradation of the masses, and the foster-mother 
of mendicancy with its train of vices ; a charity which encourages the 
vicious, insolent and idle, but neglects the modest and virtuous ; 
which feeds men as it feeds brutes, in total disregard of their improve¬ 
ment as human beings. 

The higher dignitaries in both these classes of the clergy, by virtue 
of their great temporalities held in feudal tenure from the crown, 
were barons of the realm, and sat in parliament under the title of 
“ lords spiritual,” taking precedence in rank of the lay nobles. In 
the summons to the barons of the realm for a parliament, archbishops, 
bishops, and abbots already headed the list. They too had their for¬ 
tified castles and bands of armed retainers, by whose aid they alter¬ 
nately defied the monarch, chastised the insolence of the secular 
barons, silenced those “ shoeless villains,” the people, in their disgust¬ 
ing clamors for bread and freedom ; or, in foreign lands, pushed the 
triumphs of the cross or the quarrels of the Pope at the point of the 
sword.* By prescriptive right, derived from times when the superior 
intelligence of the clergy gave them some claim to the distinction, all 
the high offices of state, all places of trust and honor about the court, 
were in the hands of the clergy. In 1371, the offices of Lord Chancel¬ 
lor, Lord Treasurer, Keeper and Clerk of the Privy Seal, Master of 
the Rolls, Master in Chancery, Chancellor and Chamberlain of the 
Exchequer, and a multitude of inferior offices, were all held by 
churchmen. 

These relations enabled them to resist successfully every attempt 
to bring them to a political level with the other subjects of the realm. 

* Henry Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, was a notable specimen of the martial 
prelate. When, in 1381, the men of Norfolk rose against their masters with the 
demand, too far in advance of their age to be successful, for “ life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness,” this zealous man of God fell upon the insurgents at the 
head of his armed followers, slew many, and carried a great number prisoners to 
his episcopal castle. Then doffing his armor for the priestly vestments, he hastily 
administered to them “ the last consolations of religion,” and sent them straight 
to the gibbet and the block. Two years after, he was military leader in a cru¬ 
sade sent from England to support the claims of Urban VI. Being obliged to 
forego his plan of attacking the French territory, he turned in a tempest of fury 
upon the friendly Flemish town of Gravelines, and butchered its defenceless in¬ 
habitants, leaving not so much as one infant alive ; then marching on to Dunkirk 
he left four thousand Flemings dead on the field. 


12 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Parliament could not so much as lay a tax for the support of govern¬ 
ment upon this privileged class, nor try a member of it even for high 
treason. Grants to the crown, and all the questions relating to the 
clergy, were settled in their own Convocations or Ecclesiastical Parlia¬ 
ments, which rivaled the royal assembly in state and splendor. Their 
episcopal and abbatial courts claimed cognizance of all civil and 
criminal cases, in which “ clerks,” that is churchmen of whatever 
grade, were concerned, even though the other party were a layman ; 
of tithes, marriages, wills ; in short, of everything which it could be 
pretended was in the remotest way connected with religion. 

As if this were not enough, they maintained in full force the ancient 
right of sanctuary , that is, of harboring fugitives from justice. Once 
within the sacred precincts of church or abbey, they could defy the 
law and all its ministers. This usage, first intended as a shield to the 
oppressed, had now become the refuge of the vilest criminals. Debtors, 
able but unwilling to pay, thieves, assassins, felons of every sort, 
looked out securely from under the wing of the Church and laughed 
at justice. Thus protected through the day, they often issued from 
the holy portals under cover of night to pursue their trade of burglary, 
arson, or highway robbery, not always unattended by such as had a 
more permanent residence in that secure abode. 

Learning had, of course, declined under these influences. A clergy 
who were the mere mercenaries of a foreign power, their revenues en¬ 
tirely independent of the will of the people, and whose very relations 
as ministers of the Church furnished incentives to pride, worldliness, 
and the grossest sensual indulgence, could have no motives to seek a 
generous intellectual culture. 

But to this was added another element. One of the essential con¬ 
ditions of their power was the ignorance and moral debasement of 
the laity. For this reason, not a word of the public services of relig¬ 
ion was allowed to be given in a tongue which the people could 
understand. Why then should they weary themselves in those liberal 
and sacred studies for which their office made no demands, and which 
would be a hindrance rather than a help in the path of clerical pro¬ 
motion ? In some departments of knowledge, they were indeed 
adepts. The clergy furnished the sharpest lawyers and the most 
adroit medical quacks, of any class in the kingdom. But of all that 
properly pertained to the spiritual office, they were profoundly igno¬ 
rant. Multitudes of the parish priests could only mumble over the 
prescribed sentences in their Latin Missal and Breviary, like the for¬ 
mula of a charm or incantation, without the remotest idea of its mean¬ 
ing. The Monks, once foremost in learning, were in a still worse 


THE PAPAL ARMY IN ENGLAND. 


13 


condition. Not only had they lost the ability to read those precious 
manuscripts, which lay entombed in the worm-eaten chests of the con¬ 
vent libraries, but the very tradition that such languages as the Hebrew 
and Greek, or such a book as the Bible, ever had existence. If a 
brother, animated by an extraordinary zeal for letters, was found 
copying in the Scriptorium , most likely it was at the sacrifice of some 
priceless relic of antiquity, which had been sponged out to furnish the 
Vandal scholar parchment for the absurd Saint-Legend he was ambi¬ 
tious of transcribing. 

THE MENDICANT FRIARS. 

It cannot be supposed that a clergy, such as has been described, 
much as they might be feared, could be generally popular. The com¬ 
mon people, especially, were prepared by their neglect of the duties of 
their office, their insolence and merciless rapacity, to welcome that 
new fraternity which came into existence early in the thirteenth cen¬ 
tury, and which now formed the most efficient corps of the Papal army 
in England. The followers of St. Francis had made their first appear¬ 
ance in the kingdom about one hundred years before the time of 
Wickliffe. They were now to be found in every lane and by-way, 
conspicuous by the close-shaven crown, unshod feet, coarse brown 
frock and rope girdle, by which they sought a visible contrast with 
the luxurious Monks and Priests of the old regime. 

The conception of the Mendicant Orders bears upon it the unmis¬ 
takable stamp of genius. It sprang up in the bosom of an indurated 
system, with all the force and freshness of a new vitality. Amid the 
worldly luxury, pomp, and indolence, which for ages had character¬ 
ized the Romish clergy, there was now to reappear the affecting spec¬ 
tacle of poverty, humility, and active benevolence exhibited by Christ 
and his apostles. Priest and Monk had alike despised, neglected and 
oppressed the people. The Friars were to devote themselves to 
the people. Instead of idly withdrawing into monasteries, under 
pretence of greater sanctity, they were to spread themselves, an 
army of evangelists, among all classes ; to seek out the poor in the 
highways and hedges, and offer them the Gospel on such terms that 
the humblest might share its blessings. The parish priests had almost 
abandoned preaching as a part of their vocation, confining their ser¬ 
vices to Mass and the Confessional. The Friars seized on the 
neglected instrument of popular influence, and by it made themselves 
masters of the common mind. The priests had rendered themselves 
odious by the compulsory exaction of tithes. The Friars, in return 
for their self-denying and laborious services, asked only such alms as 


H 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


the charity and gratitude of the faithful should bestow freely ; while, 
by the vows of their order, they were forever precluded from holding 
property in the soil. 

It is not strange that they should soon have won the entire confi¬ 
dence and affection of the people. Even the best and most enlight¬ 
ened men, who had long groaned over the vices and indolence of the 
clergy, hailed their advent as the dawn of a radical reformation in the 
Church. They found, too late, that it was but sending the locust to 
root out the canker-worm. What could be expected of a body of 
men, armed by the infallible Head of the Church with an unlimited 
commission to trade in sin, and responsible for their lives and teach¬ 
ings to neither secular nor spiritual power in the country where they 
lived ? The pitiable ignorance and credulity of the masses invited 
imposition. When the barefoot Friar, clad in his serge gown, and 
weary with toiling over the rough and miry ways, announced in some 
neglected hamlet that he had come to offer pardons, indulgences, the 
redemption of their deceased friends from purgatory, and all the pre¬ 
cious wares of the Church, at a price'within the reach of the poorest 
laborer or beggar, it seemed to the deluded people like good tidings 
of great joy. He could, moreover, by certain old rags, pigs’ bones, 
rusty nails, bits of rotten wood, and similar rubbish which he carried 
about with him under the name of relics, ensure them good crops, 
and fruitful herds, and faithful wives, all for a very reasonable con¬ 
sideration. His animated harangue^, seasoned with marvellous 
stories, all to the honor and glory of his Order, took their ears captive. 
Then he was so affable, so condescending ! He was not too proud to 
sit down under the thatched roof and eat with his rustic hosts, wash¬ 
ing down the plain fare with draughts from the pewter tankard, while 
his merry joke and tale were the best sauce of the feast. He could ex¬ 
patiate, too, with great edification, on the pride and wealth and 
extortion of the Monks and Priests, who were lords of such vast 
domains, and rioted in palaces on the hard earnings of the poor. As 
for him, he demanded nothing. P>ut should the worthy friends see fit 
to replenish his empty wallet with such needfuls as they could spare 
for the poor brethren, the saints would assuredly return the pious gift 
fourfold into their basket and store. As a farther security that such 
bounty should not lose its reward, he carefully entered on his tablets 
the name of every one who contributed fish or bacon, poultry, flax or 
wool, for the community, with the promise that he should be duly 
remembered in their prayers ; though, as Chaucer, who drew his pic¬ 
tures from the life, informs us, the list was wiped out without cere¬ 
mony as soon as his back was turned on the simple donors. 


THE PAPAL ARMY IN ENGLAND. 


15 


“ When folk in church had gave him what they list. 

He went his way, no longer would he rest— 

With scrip and tipped staff, ytucked high, 

In every house he ’gan to pore and pry, 

And begged meal and cheese, or else corn. 

His fellow had a staff ytipped with horn, 

A pair of tables, all of ivory, 

A pointell ypolished fetously, 

And wrote always the names as he stood. 

Of all the folk that gave them any good. 

Askance that he would for them pray : 

‘ Give us a bushel of wheat, malt, or rye, 

A God’s Kichell,* or a triffle of cheese, 

Or else what ye list, I may not choose, 

A God’s halfpenny or a mass penny, 

Or give us of your brawn, if ye have any ; 

A dagon of your blanket, deare dame— 

Our sister deare, lo, here I write your name— 

Bacon or beef, or such thing as ye find.’ 

A sturdy harlot went hard aye behind. 

That was their host’s man, and bare a sack 
And what men gave him, laid it on his back. 

And when he was out at the door, anon 
He plained away the names, every one 
That he before had written in his tables ; 

He served them with niffles and with fables.” 

This was the most successful blow which had ever yet been struck 
for the Papacy. Hitherto, the relation between the clergy and people 
had been such as to allow of a wholesome dislike of the priesthood. 
The faults of superiors and oppressors are easily discerned by those 
on whom they trample ; and it might be hoped that in time the com¬ 
mon mind would rise above the delusions of a system whose temporal 
bondage was so hard to bear. But under this new form, it wormed 
itself into the very heart of the people. It fell in with all their preju¬ 
dices, flattered their vanity, vulgarized religion to their tastes, cheap¬ 
ened it to their means, and bound them, heart and soul, to their 
spiritual teachers. 

Their special commission, held directly from the Pope, rendering 
them amenable to himself alone, gave the Friars a great advantage. 
Under this all-powerful sanction they ranged from parish to parish, 
from diocese to diocese, regardless of all prescriptive rights, literally 
underselling all competitors, and crowding them out of market. 
Crime of every sort, secure of absolution in the most private manner 
and at the cheapest rate, increased with fearful rapidity. One bishop 


* A little cake. 


16 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


complained that he had in his diocese some two thousand malefactors, 
of whom not fourteen had received absolution from the parish priests, 
who yet defied punishment, and claimed their right to the sacraments 
on the pretence of having been absolved by the Friars. 

But they were not confined to the poor. Like the Apostle, but with 
a very different object, they became all things to all men. They 
neglected no class of society ; they had an eye to every source of influ¬ 
ence. Many of them took high rank as men of learning, according to 
the standard of the age. Even in the universities, whose prime object 
was the education of the secular clergy, the Friars gained an ascendency 
which threatened to convert them into nurseries of their own Order. 
They increased in numbers with unparalleled rapidity, and by their 
holy beggary and traffic soon became enormously rich. Being prohi¬ 
bited the ownership of land, they invested their funds in magnificent 
churches and convents, in gold and silver plate, rich vestments and 
precious stones ; while the interior of their sacred dwellings witnessed 
excesses not surpassed by those of the monastery. 

“ Round many a convent’s blazing fire 
Unhallowed threads of revelry are spun ; 

There Venus sits disguised like a Nun,— 

While Bacchus, clothed in semblance of a Friar, 

Pours out his choicest beverage. 
****** 

The arched roof, with resolute abuse 

Of its grave echoes, swells a choral cheer 

Whose votive burden is— Our kingdom’s here !” 

But they never forgot that drops make the ocean ; never became too 
proud to beg from the poor. Wickliffe found the land swarming with 
them, a gross and sordid pack, still maintaining by their low arts all 
their power over a debased and cheated people. 

The songof jolly Friar Tuck, in Ivanhoe, gives a lively picture both 
of the popularity and the grossness of the Order, though the darkest 
shades are of course omitted in the portrait : 

“ The Friar has walked out, and where’er he has gone, 

The land and its fatness is marked for his own ; 

He can roam where he lists, he can stop when he tires, 

For every man’s house is the Barefooted Friar’s. 

He’s expected at noon, and no wight till he comes 
May profane the great chair and the porridge of plums; 

For the best of the fare, and the seat by the fire, 

Is the undenied right of the Barefooted Friar. 


THE PAPAL ARMY IN ENGLAND. 


17 


He’s expected at night, and the pastry’s made hot, 

They broach the brown ale, and they fill the black pot ; 
And the good wife would wish her good man in the mire, 
Ere he lacked a soft pillow, the Barefooted Friar. 

Long flourish the sandal, the cord, and the cope, 

The dread of the devil and trust of the Pope ; 

For to gather life’s roses, unscathed by the briar, 

Is granted alone to the Barefooted Friar.” 


All the resources, whether of property or influence, thus accumu¬ 
lated by these immediate proteges and vassals of the Pope, was so 
much capital to the Papacy itself. How rich a vein of material wealth 
had been opened to his Holiness may be judged of by the fact, that in 
1299 the Franciscans were able to offer him fifty thousand ducats in 
gold for permission to own land—a petition which he refused, how¬ 
ever, after quietly pocketing the money. He would allow them to 
form no ties with the country in which they lived, which might inter¬ 
fere with unconditional subserviency to himself. The increase of his 
direct influence on all the internal affairs of the kingdom, and over 
the mind of the nation through their means, was still more important. 
The secular clergy, as we have seen, had become his creatures ; the 
monasteries, by successive 'strokes of policy, had been withdrawn from 
episcopal jurisdiction, and made immediately accountable to himself. 
But as large land proprietors, it was possible for exigencies to arise 
when these orders of the clergy might prefer the interests of the coun¬ 
try to his own. The system was made complete by the addition of a 
corps, exceeding them both in number, who had no dependence but 
his favor, no ties which could interfere with unconditional subservi¬ 
ency to himself ; and whose revenues must be the fruit of incessant 
activity in imbuing the popular mind with attachment to the Papacy. 

The stimulus imparted by their success to the whole body of the 
clergy was, moreover, highly satisfactory. All eyes were turned with 
increasing eagerness toward the great dispenser of patronage. Rome 
became more and more the central point of interest, the grand mart 
of office, the final court of appeal to all parties, and the papal treasury 
overflowed with the bribes of rival suitors. Such being the result, the 
quarrels among his vassals over the division of the spoils at home 
did not disturb the serenity of the Head of the Church. 

Nor even yet had he exhausted his devices for governing and drain¬ 
ing England. His special officers, located at all important points in 
the kingdom, held the double office of papal spies and tax-gatherers ; 
while his legates and nuncios, armed with plenipotentiary powers, held 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


18 

their courts over the heads of both kings and bishops, and decided 
momentous ecclesiastical questions, vitally affecting the interests of the 
State, by the simple authority of the successor of St. Peter. 

By these various methods, the Pontiff drew yearly from England 
five times the amount of the whole royal revenue ;* and this was the 
smallest injury sustained by the enslaved country from the unnatural 
connection. 


* So stated in the petition of the “ Good Parliament,” 1376. Vaughan. 



CHAPTER III. 


COUNTER-INFLUENCES ; THEIR INEFFICIENCY. 

If now we inquire for any counter-influences at work in England in 
the fourteenth century, we shall find, at several points, a decided hos¬ 
tility to the encroachments of the Papacy. Edward III. was too 
spirited and ambitious a monarch to look on patiently, while so large 
and influential a body of his nominal subjects disowned his authority, 
and the Pope of Rome exercised more power in his realm, and drew 
from it far more money than himself. But his quarrel was not with 
the religion of the Papacy. He was jealous, as well he might be, of 
the political power and the wealth of the clergy. It chafed him sorely 
to see papal legates and provisors running through his kingdom, 
draining it of money, interfering with his own government, and act¬ 
ing as spies to his enemies.* But there is little indication of any 
enlightened, generous concern for the moral condition of his people, 
or even for their temporal welfare. He was always ready to grind 
them down to the last point of endurance, sparing neither their prop¬ 
erty nor their blood, in furtherance of his own ambitious and selfish 
projects. His efforts had for their object no real reformation within 
the Church, nor would a living, spiritual Christianity have been wel¬ 
comed by him more cordially than by the Pope himself. His resist¬ 
ance was, moreover, too fitful and capricious to effect a permanent 
change even in the outward relations of England to the Papacy, being 
ever the first man to violate his own laws when tempted by some 
present advantage. Thus the odious system of papal provisions,! 
against which such spirited laws were enacted by his authority, 
remained nevertheless in full practical force, because the king himself 
would still appeal to the Pope whenever he could not otherwise secure 
the appointment of his favorite candidate. 

The ’same was true of the Secular Barons ; though, having less to 
gain from the Papacy, these were, in general, more consistent in their 

* During his reign the Papal court was fixed at Avignon, in France, and seven 
successive Pontiffs were Frenchmen. 

\ Reversionary grants by the Pope to benefices not yet vacant, without refer¬ 
ence to the rights of the native legal patrons. The sale of these provisionary 
grants was a source of large income to the Papal Court. 


20 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


opposition to its encroachments. There is frequently something very 
imposing in the tone and bearing with which these martial nobles 
meet the pretensions both of the sovereign pontiff, and of their own des¬ 
potic monarchs. Seen through the magnifying haze of time, they rise 
before us as the representatives, in an age of lawless tyranny, of the 
great principles of human freedom. A closer view greatly diminishes 
our admiration. No king was ever more ready than they to defer to 
the Pope as the vicegerent of God, when it suited their own purposes. 
No king ever ruled his subjects with a more iron hand, than did 
these liberty-loving nobles their dependents and vassals. Magna 
Charta itself was the fruit of a coalition, formed under the sanction of 
Innocent III., between the nobles and the clergy, for the twofold 
purpose of protecting themselves against the despotism of King John, 
and of chastising his attempt to throw off the Papal yoke.* Small 
would have been the gain to liberty, had not other influences come in 
to extend its provisions somewhat beyond the interests of these 
“upper classes.” Happily, John was not yet brought so low, but 
that he could claim the insertion of certain articles as distasteful to 
the Barons as theirs were to him. Happily, they were not so strong, 
but that the rich though despised tradesmen of London could demand 
certain provisions for their class as the price of their aid. Even 
then, it brought to the great body of the people no hope of freedom 
or improvement. The laboring classes, i.e., the majority of the Eng¬ 
lish people, are but twice mentioned in this famous instrument, and 
then it is, as Henry remarks, “for the benefit of their masters.”f 
Even then Magna Charta, interpreted by the circumstances of the 
times, was a guarantee for the perpetual domination of the Romish 
clergy in England. In the nobles of the fourteenth century, we dis¬ 
cover no essential advancement in moral character or breadth of 
views, beyond those of a hundred years before. Their remonstrances 
against Papal oppression take no higher or bolder tone, nor would 
they have made any greater figure in the history of English freedom, 
had they not been immediately followed by the labors of a genuine 
reformer. 

If we turn to the Universities, the sacred schools of those times, in 
the hope of finding some dawning of a better day, the same disap- 

* See an admirable analysis of the Great Charter in Henry’s History, vol. vi. 
P- 65. 

f The 4th article provides against “ the waste of men and goods" on the estates 
of minors to the detriment of the heir when he shall come of age ; the 6th secures 
to a “ villain” his implements of husbandry against seizure as payment of fines 
—a practice very inconvenient to those who lived by his labor. 


COUNTER-INFLUENCES; THEIR INEFFICIENCY. 21 

pointment meets us here. True, they were marked by a strong feel¬ 
ing of nationality, and an active jealousy of that papal influence which 
was exerted so injuriously to the interests of the native clergy. Their 
members hated the Friars as the emissaries of the Pope, a,nd their own 
chief rivals. But for liberal ideas, sound learning, or devoted piety, 
the academic halls of this period are searched in vain. It would in¬ 
deed be strange, if the nurseries of the clergy should have surpassed 
in these respects the demands of the Church. The speediest road, 
both to wealth and clerical preferment, was then found in the practice 
of the civil, and especially the canon law ;* and accordingly, many 
young candidates for the ministry spent their entire term of Univer¬ 
sity study in fitting themselves to become, in a sense not altogether 
evangelical, “ fishers of men/’ The profession of medicine being 
also very lucrative, and almost monopolized by churchmen, large 
numbers of the young clergy became deeply skilled in the mystery of 
healing as then understood—for instance, curing small-pox without 
scars, by wrapping the patient in “red scarlet cloth”; or stopping 
epileptic fits, by saying Mass over the patient and causing his parents 
to fast. For those of a speculative turn, there was the scholastic phi¬ 
losophy, with its abstruse discussions of entities and non-entities, sub¬ 
stances and accidents, substantial forms and occult qualities. The 
Universities could boast their subtle , sublime , profound, angelic , and 
seraphic doctors of theology, who could discuss through endless folios 
the questions : “ Does the glorified body of Christ stand or sit in 
Heaven ? Is the body of Christ, which is eaten in the sacrament, 
dressed or undressed ? Were the clothes in which Christ appeared to 
his disciples after his resurrection, real or only apparent ? Was 
Christ the same between his death and resurrection, as before his 
death and after his resurrection ?” Subjects even more frivolous 
and absurd engaged the attention of the sharpest intellects of the 
times. Thus, the question : “ Whether a hog, taken to market with 
a rope tied round its neck which is held at the other end by a man, 
is carried by the rope or by the man ?” was gravely argued by the 
logicians, and declared insoluble, the reasons on both sides being per¬ 
fectly balanced. But their disquisitions were not all so innocent. 
The obscene and blasphemous character of some of their speculations 
proves too clearly, that the foulest moral impurity is quite compatible 
with childish folly. 

Such had been the general character of these “ theological semina- 

* The system of Papal jurisprudence drawn from the decisions of Popes and 
Councils. 


O -7 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


ries, ” ever since the Bible had been cast aside in the spiritual instruc¬ 
tion of the people. The decline of all liberal and comprehensive cul¬ 
ture had kept pace with the decline of the study of the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures. The great Roger Bacon declared, in the preceding century, 
that among the scholars of his time, there were but three or four who 
had any knowledge of Greek or Hebrew. There was, however, then 
to !be found occasionally in the Universities a Bible doctoi' (so-called in 
contempt of the antiquated and unprofitable direction of his studies), 
though it was difficult for a teacher so far behind the age to obtain 
the use of a lecture-room, or the command of a regular hour, or to 
persuade a handful of young men to listen to his instructions. But it 
was now long, since one of these fossil-specimens of the past had 
appeared among scholars. Even a copy of the Latin Vulgate was 
scarcely to be found at the Universities. In 1353, three or four 
young Irish priests came over to England to study divinity ; but were 
obliged to return home “ because not a copy of the Bible was to be 
found at Oxford.” The morals of these schools, frequented yearly 
by many thousands of English youths, were not a whit superior to 
their learning. Frequent allusions occur, in the records of the time, 
to the fearful prevalence of the most debasing vices, among both 
teachers and students. 

In glancing along the course of English history, from the Conquest 
to the middle of the fourteenth century, one fact strikes the attentive 
reader with peculiar force. During that whole period, we do not 
perceive the development, in the life of society, of a single radically 
new idea. Several truly great men had sat on the English throne ; 
the English Church had given birth to scholars, theologians, and 
statesmen of no mean rank. Nor was it destitute of yet nobler 
names, shining with the lustre of personal piety and zeal for religion, 
amid the thick moral darkness. But they all drift with the powerful 
current, which set in with William I. and his Anglo-Norman church. 
Their attempts to remedy existing evils are superficial and fragment¬ 
ary, utterly ineffectual to arrest the mighty onward tide of priestly 
domination and corruption. Much is vaguely asserted respecting the 
progress of civil liberty during this period. The courts of law 
attained, it is said, a theoretical perfection in the time of Edward III. 
which has scarcely been surpassed. But if we look at the actual con¬ 
dition of the people in the fourteenth century, we see little that 
deserves the name of progress. Violence and bribery everywhere 
overawed or corrupted justice. “ There was not,” we are told, “ so 
much as one of the king’s ministers and judges who did not receive 


COUNTER-INFLUENCES ; THEIR INEFFICIENCY. 


23 


bribes, and very few who did not extort them.”* Perjury was a vice 
so universal, that the words of scripture might have found an almost 
literal application to the English people, from the king to the serf— 
“ All men are liars.” Life and property were kept in perpetual 
insecurity, by the numerous and ferocious bands of robbers which 
roamed over the country, under the protection of powerful barons, 
who sheltered them in their castles, and shared with them their 
booty. Englishmen and Englishwomen were still sold like cattle at 
the great fairs. Grossness of manners characterized all ranks, and 
exhibited itself in the most revolting forms of licentiousness among 
the leading classes. “ Like priest, like people,” was never more fully 
verified than in this portion of English history.f 

The recognition of the right of burgher representation, in the estab¬ 
lishment of the House of Commons, has been appealed to, as the 
beginning of the England that now is. Put what was this, in reality, 
but a mere extension of the old idea that “ might makes right,” the 
recognition of a new potency, in addition to that of the stronger arm, 
viz., the potency of property ? A great and glorious advance it 
indeed was. over the reign of brute force ! But it did not spring 
from the root of true liberty. The idea of man, with his inborn 
inalienable rights—now the characteristic idea of the Anglo-Saxon 
race—had never then dawned on the English mind. When, in 1381, 
a hundred thousand English laborers came up to London, with the 
humble request that they might become men, they met in no class 
with less sympathy than among the free commoners.—When Richard 
II. announced to parliament, at its next session, that he had revoked 
the charters of freedom with which he had deluded his poor subjects, 
the Hojise of Commons expressed its cordial approbation of the cruel 
fraud, and declared that they would never give their assent to the 
abolition of serfdom, “ though it were to save themselves from all 
perishing in a day.” It was the House of Commons too, who peti¬ 
tioned at a still later period, that serfs might not be permitted to send 
their children to school—“ and this for the honor and glory of all the 
freemen of the realm !” And the majority of Englishmen, be it 
remembered, were then serfs, or in a state of civil disability scarcely 
above that of absolute slaves of the soil. 

* Henry, vol. viii., 384. 

f This picture may seem too dark for truth ; but the reader will find it fully 
borne out by the histories of the time. See, particularly, Henry’s History, vols. 
v., vi., viii., and x. The showy virtues of chivalry, the portraiture of which, by 
novelists and poets, has made this period so dear to the fancy, are by no means 
inconsistent with the vices here depicted. 


24 ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 

Allowing, then, the utmost that can reasonably be claimed for the 
progress of freedom, there was as yet no sign presaging England’s 
glorious future ; nothing to which we can look back and say : Here 
was the earnest of her great destiny ! In the nature of the case, 
there could not be. Of civil liberty in its true and noblest sense— 
that which embraces in its protecting arms the whole people, and 
allows full scope to the development of the individual as a moral and 
social being—of this the world has seen no example, where a State 
religion holds the consciences of men in blind subjection to the priest¬ 
hood, and denies the Bible to the common people. 




CHAPTER IV. 


THE BIBLE-APOSTLE. 

Jo 

iSuch was the gloomy and almost hopeless scene presented by Eng¬ 
land, when there appeared on the stage a teacher of religion, whose 
wnole life and opinions had their source in the teachings of the Bible. 

How Wickliffe had come into possession of the Bible, at a time 
when it was an unknown book to the great body of the clergy as well 
as laity, and was wholly ignored in “ the course of theological study” 
at Oxford, history does not inform us. His first discovery of the 
treasure might reveal a religious experience no less affecting, a provi¬ 
dential guidance no less striking, than in the case of Luther. Per¬ 
chance the earnest student, urged by an inward want which found 
little satisfaction in the dry and frivolous discussions of the lecture- 
room, was rummaging those old chests in the crypt of St. Mary’s,* 
when the beautifully written and illuminated Biblia Sacra caught hio 
eye. With the first glance at the strange words of life and truth, how 
would the monkish legends and the musty disquisitions of the sentem 
tiaries be forgotten ; and hour after hour glide away unnoted amid 
those dim old vaults, while the enchained reader bent, torch in hand, 
over the page of inspiration ! This indeed is but fancy. But it Is no 
mere fancy that Wickliffe found a Bible ; and that he pored over it so 
long and earnestly, and with such fervent prayer to God, that it be¬ 
came to him the source of a new spiritual existence, and the guiding 
star of his destiny. 

Those beautiful words uttered in one of his sermons at Lutterworth, 
might fitly serve as the motto of his whole subsequent career : “ Oh 
Christ ! thy law is hidden in the sepulchre ; when wilt thou send thy 
angel to remove the stone, and show thy truth unto thy flock !” 
.ememLVi'ed, * within the scope of this sketch, to portray in detail Wick- 
ibove that of ' ‘ssive labors as a Reformer. These will only be briefly 
as indicating the path by which he was conducted to his 
last and crowning work ; that work, without which all his previous 
efforts would have proved like inscriptions on the sand— the restor¬ 
ation of the Bible to the common people. 

*i it this time the library of Oxford was kept in a few chests under St. Mary’a 
Church. 


26 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


OPPOSES THE MENDICANTS. 

His first conflict was with the Friars, about the year 1360 ; who, 
having succeeded by the help of the Pope in thrusting themselves into 
important offices in the University, were exerting a most baneful in¬ 
fluence on its students, inducing great numbers of them to take the 
vows of their Order. He had also had ample opportunities of observ¬ 
ing their abominable lives, and the arts by which they practised on 
the credulity of the lower classes. No doubt they had many times 
before provoked his stern rebuke. But the long-felt indignation now 
kindles into the Reformer’s zeal. He feels in himself the summons to 
come forth and do battle for the truth. 

It is interesting to note the standpoint of Wickliffe in this, the initia¬ 
tive step of his career as a reformer. We have indeed nothing from 
his pen which can be assigned to the exact date of this controversy ; 
but his writings on the same subject, which have been preserved, 
sufficiently indicate his position. Grostete, Armichanus, and other 
great and good men of the English Church, had severely censured the 
immoralities of the Friars. Wickliffe depicts their atrocious practices 
with a still more fearless hand.—But he goes much farther than this. 
He strikes at the root of the evil. In his view, their system, from the 
foundation upward, is a lie ; their very existence, high treason to Him 
who has revealed in the Scriptures the most perfect law of faith and 
life. The Friars had put forth the bold claim, that their religion took 
precedence, in dignity and merit, of the religion of Christ. Accord¬ 
ing to them, there had been three dispensations ; the first, contained 
in the Old Testament, proceeding from the Father ; the second, that 
of the New, proceeding from the Son ; and finally, “ the everlasting 
gospel,” proclaimed by the angel in the Apocalypse (who was no 
other than St. Francis, the founder of their Order), which was, of 
course, to supersede every other. 

The reasoning by which Wickliffe meets this assumption shows 
how firmly he had anchored himself on the revealed word. The relig¬ 
ion of Christ, he argues, must be most perfect, inasmuch as its 
founder is most perfect. To charge him with not teaching the best 
religion, is to charge him with want, either of the highest wisdom or 
the highest love. It is also most perfect in its rule of life, being 
purely divine, without mixture of human error. It is most perfect in 
the example which it furnishes, since Christ and his apostles “be 
chief knights thereof.” It is most perfect in the freedom of its ser¬ 
vice, as it “ standeth in all love and freedom of heart, bidding nothing 
but what is reasonable and profitable, and Christ himself declares : 


THE BIBLE-APOSTLE. 


‘ My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ ” But the Friars pretend¬ 
ed that their works of merit far exceeded the demands of Christ. 
“ Can any man,” asks Wickliffe, “ more than fulfill that first and great 
command, to love God with all the heart, all the mind and all the 
strength, and his neighbor as himself?” Then cannot any man ex¬ 
ceed the demands of Christ’s religion. He, therefore, who pretends to 
amend Christ’s religion in fact denies it, and is an apostate from the 
faith. But the point of most significance, for its reference to his 
future career, is found in his contrast between the Friar’s religion and 
that of Christ, in respect to the sanction under which they respectively 
claim belief. ‘‘Christ’s religion,” he says, “is most true, because 
confirmed of God and not of sinful men ; and because by it the Pope 
and every other man must be confirmed, or else he shall be damned ; 
while the new Orders, being confirmed only by the Pope, may turn 
out to have been confirmed by a devil.” 

Thus, in this first attack on the errors of the age, Wickliffe struck 
the key-note of all his future labors. 

SUMMONED TO PARLIAMENT. 

So bold an assault on this powerful body could not fail to provoke 
their mortal enmity. But it also fixed on him the favorable attention 
of those who were jealous of the political power of the Pope and 
clergy. In 1365 he was present at the parliament to which Edward 
III. submitted the demand of Urban V. for the renewal of King 
John’s tribute ; * and, from the circumstances, there can be no doubt 
that he had been invited to London to aid the resisting party by his 
counsels. That he was one of its acknowledged leaders, is seen in the 
fact, that soon after Parliament’s indignant repudiation of the papal 
claim, he was challenged by name, in -a violent anonymous tract on 
the subject ; and that he responded to the call, as one whose right 
and duty it was to speak in the case. From his reply, we learn the 
considerations which had influenced the decision of Parliament ; and 
from their general correspondence to his own views, expressed else¬ 
where, it can hardly be doubted that they were, for the most part, first 
borrowed from his own mind. Here, also, we observe the same 
reference to the teachings and authority of the Scriptures. The 
Pope, he argues, cannot claim, as the representative of Christ, any¬ 
thing beyond what Christ claimed for himself. But Christ’s office was 

* Urban required, not only the thousand marks yearly, as promisee! by John, 
but the payment of all arrearages, principal and interest, for the previous thirty 
years ; in default of which, the king was cited to appear before the pontiff, and 
answer for his conduct as to his feudal lord. 


28 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


purely spiritual ; he refused all secular dominion ; nay, so far was he 
from exercising temporal lordship, that he subsisted on charity, and 
had not where to lay his head. He concludes, therefore, that England 
owes no civil allegiance to the Pope, and may properly repel his 
aggressions upon her temporal sovereignty. On the same general 
ground he maintained also, that the secular possessions of the clergy 
are held on the same tenure with that of the other subjects of the 
realm, and are liable to control, or if abused, to forfeiture by the secu¬ 
lar powers which first bestowed them ; and in all civil cases, the per¬ 
sons of ecclesiastics should, as in the case of the laity, be subject to 
the civil courts. In this, he struck at that grand prerogative of the 
clergy, for which Lanfranc, Anselm, Becket, and a long line of popish 
heroes had waged deadly warfare with their sovereigns. 

In 1371, we find his name connected with a parliamentary move¬ 
ment for an additional reform in respect to the clergy, viz.: their ex¬ 
clusion from secular offices. Their monopoly of all places of honor 
and profit in the State, joined to their ecclesiastical power, had given 
them a most dangerous preponderance in the government ; and yet, 
strange to say, Wickliffe seems to have been the first who questioned 
their perfect right to it. He indeed opposed this admixture of the 
spiritual and temporal on purely religious grounds. Such a coalition 
was, in his view, incompatible with the New Testament conception of 
the sanctity and high responsibility of the sacred office. “ He that 
warreth, entangleth not himself with this life,” was his favorite axiom 
on that subject. He complains that “prelates and great religious 
possessioners, are so occupied in heart about worldly lordships and 
pleas of business, that no habit of devotion, of praying, of thoughtful¬ 
ness on heavenly things, on the sins of their own hearts or those of 
other men, may be preserved ; neither are they found studying and 
preaching the Gospel, nor visiting and comforting of poor men.” , 
These are the reasons for which he concludes, that “ neither pfelates 1 
nor doctors, priests nor deacons, should hold secular offices.” But 
the doctrine thus first suggested from a religious point of view, was 
eagerly caught up by the laity for its political application, and was 
made the subject of one of the most important memorials submitted to 
Parliament during this eventful reign. 

PROFESSOR AT OXFORD. 

The following year he received his degree of Doctor in Theology, 
and commenced a course of divinity lectures at Oxford. The strong 
impression immediately created in the University is not surprising. 
By the testimony of Knyghton, a man well qualified to judge in such 


THE BIBLE-APOSTLE. 


2 9 


matters, and withal a bitter opponent of Wickliffe’s doctrines, he was 
“ as a theologian, the most eminent of his time ; in philosophy, second 
to none ; as a schoolman, incomparable.” And again : “ No man 
excelled him in the strength and number of his arguments ; and he 
excelled all men in the irresistible power of his eloquence. ” Walden, 
another of his inveterate enemies, confessed in a letter to Pope Martin 
V., that he had often stood amazed beyond measure at the excellence 
of his learning, the boldness of his assertions, the exactness of his 
authorities, and the strength of his arguments.” But his mastery of 
scholastic lore was not the secret of his power. It was the living in¬ 
fluence of a spirit, which, having drunk deeply at the fountain of 
Eternal Truth, yearned to lead others thither also. Casting aside the 
absurd speculations and sophistries which they had been wont to hear 
from the Professor’s chair, he reasoned with his pupils on such themes 
as the being, nature, and attributes of God ; the immortality of the 
soul, its faculties and affections ; the essential nature of sin and of 
holiness. Nor did he content himself with abstract truth. In the 
lecture-room he was still the practical reformer. Thus from the con¬ 
sideration of the nature of sin, he proceeds to the conclusion, that the 
distinction between mortal and venial sin, “ about which the prelates 
babble so much,” is a mere priestly contrivance for making gain ; 
that the doctrine of priestly absolution and indulgence is an impious 
invasion of the prerogatives of God, who is alone able to forgive sin. 
The great churchmen who were so free with their dispensations, were, 
in his bold language, “ blasphemers of the wisdom of God, pretend¬ 
ing in their avarice and folly, to understand what they know not ; 
sensual simonists, who chatter on the subject of grace as if it were 
something to be bought and sold like an ox or an ass.” Saint-wor¬ 
ship had at this time almost supplanted the worship of God, and had 
substituted, for the one Mediator, a countless army of intercessors in 
the Saints of the Romish Calendar.* The following extract shows 

* A striking exemplification of this tendency is seen in the case of Thomas 
Becket, that bold, bad man, who had been canonized by the Romish Church as a 
martyr, and thereafter reigned for centuries as the chief English Safnt. His 
shrine in Canterbury Cathedral was enriched with offerings of astonishing mag¬ 
nificence and value, and every fifty years a jubilee in his honor drew together an 
innumerable company of pilgrims. At the fifth jubilee, in 1420, the concourse is 
said to have amounted to 100,000 persons. “ The devotion towards him had 
quite effaced in that place the adoration of the Deity : nay, even that of the 
Virgin. At God’s altar, for instance, there were offered in one year three 
pounds, two shillings and sixpence ; at the Virgin’s, sixty-three pounds, five 
shillings and sixpence ; at St.Thomas’, eight hundred and thirty-two pounds, 
twelve shillings and threepence. But the next year the disproportion was still 


30 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


how Wickliffe, even thus early in his public career, had risen above 
the superstitions of his age : “ Whoever entreats a saint, should direct 
his prayer to Christ as God, not to the special Saint, but to Christ. 
Nor doth the celebration or festival of a saint avail anything, except 
in so far as it may tend to magnify Christ, inciting us to honor him, 
and increasing our love to him. If there be any celebration in honor 
of the saints, which is not kept within these limits, it is to be ascribed, 
without doubt, to cupidity, or some other evil motive. Hence, not a 
few think it would be well for the Church, if all festivals of that nature 
were abolished, and those only retained which had respect immedi¬ 
ately to Christ. For then, they say, the memory of Christ would be 
kept more freshly in the mind, and the devotions of the common peo¬ 
ple would not be unduly distributed among the members of Christ. 
.... For the Scriptures assure us that Christ is the Mediator be¬ 
tween God and man.” Freedom of religious opinion, and the right 
of private judgment, are distinctly vindicated in these lectures. 

Christ, says he, wished his law to be observed willingly, freely, 
that m such obedience men might find happiness. Hence he appointed 
no civil punishment to be inflicted on transgressors of his commandments , 
but left them to a punishment more severe, that would come after the 
day of judgment.” Human tradition he set aside as of no account in 
matters of religion. “ If there be any truth,” he says, “ it is in the 
Scripture ; and there is no truth to be found in the schools, that may 
not be found in more excellence in the Bible.” 

Even those who were attached to the person and opinions of Wick- 
Jiffe were alarmed at his boldness. They begged him to remember, 
when thus exposing himself to the wrath of the great “ satraps of the 
Church, that his appeal to the Scriptures ‘for the truth of his views 
would be of little avail, in a time when the Scriptures themselves were 
of no authority. “ Without doubt,” he replied, “ what you say is 
true. The chief cause of the existing state of things is our want of 
faith in the Holy Scriptures. We do not sincerely believe in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, or we should abide by the authority of his word, espe¬ 
cially of. the Evangelists, as of infinitely greater weight than every 
other. It is the will of the Holy Spirit, that the books of the Old and 
New Law should be read and studied, as the one sufficient source of 
instruction ; and that men should not be taken up with other books, 
which, true as they may be, and even containing scripture truth, are 

greater : there was not a penny offered at God’s altar ; the Virgin’s gained only 
four pounds, one shilling and eightpence ; but St. Thomas had got for his share 
nine hundred and fifty-four pounds, six shillings and threepence.” Hume’s Eng¬ 
land, quoted from ed. 1796, in Eng. Reformers, vol. i., p. 52. 


THE BIBLE-APOSTLE. 


31 


not to be confided in without caution and limitation. Hence Augus¬ 
tine often enjoins it on his readers, not to place any faith in his word 
or writings, except so far as they have their foundation in Scripture. 
Of course we should judge thus of the writings of other holy doctors ; 
much more of the writings of the Roman Church and her doctors, in 
these later times. If we follow this rule, the Scriptures will be held 
in becoming reverence. The papal bulls will be superseded, as they 
ought to be. The veneration of men for the laws of the papacy, as 
well as foe the opinions of our modern doctors, which, since the loos¬ 
ing of Satan, they have been so free to promulgate, will be restrained 
within due limits. What concern have the faithful with writings of 
this sort, except as they are honestly deduced from the fountain of 
Scripture ? By such a course, we can not only reduce the mandates of 
popes and prelates to their proper place, but the errors of these new 
religions might be corrected, and the worship of Christ well purified 
and exalted.” 

Such were the doctrines—and what other than these were “ the 
glorious doctrines of the Reformation” ?—which Wickliffe, two centu¬ 
ries before Luther, taught openly in the halls of Oxford. Here he 
strove to raise up, from the flower of the rising clergy, a corps of de¬ 
voted spirits who should be prepared, in the conflict which he foresaw 
as inevitable, to do battle for the truth. The high moral enthusiasm 
which inspired words like the following, must have been like an enkin¬ 
dling flame to their young hearts : “ All Christians,” thus he ad¬ 
dresses them, “ should be the soldiers of Christ. But it is plain that 
many are chargeable with great neglect of this duty ; being prevented 
by fear of the loss of temporal goods and worldly friendships, and ap¬ 
prehensive about life and fortune, from faithfully setting forth the cause 
of God, from standing manfully in its defence, and if need be, from 
suffering death in its behalf. From the like source comes that subter¬ 
fuge of Satan, argued by some of our modern hypocrites, that it can¬ 
not be a duty now, as in the primitive Church, to suffer martyrdom, 
since in our time the great majority of men being believers, there are 
none to persecute Christ to the death in his members. But this is, 
without doubt, a device of Satan to shield sin. For the believer, in 
maintaining the law of Christ, should be prepared, as his soldier, to 
endure all things at the hands of the satraps of this world ; declaring 
boldly to Pope and Cardinals, to Bishops and Prelates, how unjustly, 
according to the teaching of the Gospel, they serve God in their 
offices, subjecting those committed to their care to great injury and 
peril, such as must bring on them speedy destruction. All this ap¬ 
plies, indeed, to temporal lords, but not in so great a degree as to 


32 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


the clergy ; for as the abomination of desolation begins with a per¬ 
verted clergy, so the consolation begins with a converted clergy. 
Hence we Christians need not visit pagans to convert them, by endur¬ 
ing martyrdom in their behalf ; we have only to declare with constancy 
the word of God before Caesarean Prelates, and straightway the flower 
of martyrdom will be ready to our hand /’ ’ 

Wickliffe did not think it sufficient to sow the good seed among 
the clergy alone. While engaged in his duties as Professor, he 
preached on the Sabbath to promiscuous auditories, in the mother 
tongue, the same great truths which he taught to his students during 
the week ; and in the intervals of academic duty, he gave himself to 
the work which he loved above all others—that of Christian preacher 
and pastor, in the rectory of Fyllingham. More than three hundred 
of his pastoral sermons, more or less complete, remain as witnesses of 
his zeal and fidelity as a religious teacher of the common people, and 
not less of the evangelical purity of his doctrines. 

Thus passed two laborious, but peaceful, years of Wickliffe’s life. 
In favor with the court, for the stand which he had taken against the 
Pope, and with the university, for his zeal against the Friars ; honored 
for his genius, his learning, and his virtuous life, he was at this time 
regarded as the chief light and ornament of Oxford. Thus, in the 
providence of God, time was afforded for his principles to become 
known and to take root in many minds. We now turn a new leaf in 
his history. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE POPE AND BISHOPS IN THE FIELD. 

In 1372, a royal commission had been sent to Avignon, to remon¬ 
strate with the Pope against the sale of English benefices, which was 
still prosecuted on the largest scale. When the embassy returned 
without having accomplished anything, and Parliament resolved to 
repeat the attempt more vigorously, Wickliffe was summoned by 
royal authority from Oxford, to join the new commission. That 
he should have been selected for such a purpose, is a striking proof of 
the weight attached to his opinions and personal character. But this 
second effort resulted no better than the first. After two years spent 
in wearisome and fruitless negotiations, Wickliffe returned to Eng¬ 
land, thoroughly disgusted with the duplicity and corruption of the 
Papal court,* and fully convinced that no reformation was to be 
hoped for from this quarter ; that if England wished to save her civil 
and religious liberties from swift and utter destruction, she must look 
for rescue elsewhere than to the Head of the Church. His bold ex¬ 
posures and appeals were, without doubt, the moving spring of those 
energetic measures of reform in the House of Commons, which fol¬ 
lowed his return from Bruges. 

But they had other results. A few months after his return (early 
in February, 1377), the ecclesiastical parliament held its session in 
London ; and one of its first matters of business was to receive accusa- 

* Wickliffe and his associates were not allowed to proceed to Avignon, but 
were met by the papal commissioners at Bruges. In the following letter of Pe¬ 
trarch, written from Avignon while it was the seat of the papal court, we may find 
a sufficient reason why the sturdy assailant of the vices of the clergy should not 
have been allowed a nearer approach to his Holiness.—“ You imagine,” says he, 
“ that the city of Avignon is the same now as when you resided in it. No ! it is 
quite different. True, it was then the worst and vilest place on earth ; but it is 
now a terrestrial hell, a residence of fiends and devils, a receptacle of all that is 
most wicked and abominable. What I tell you is not from hq^rsay, but from 
my own knowledge and experience. In this city there is no piety, no reverence 
or fear of God, no faith or charity, nothing that is holy, just, equitable, or 
humane. Why should I speak of truth, when not only the houses, palaces, 
courts, churches, and the thrones of Popes and Cardinals, but the very earth and 
air, seem to teem with lies ? A future state, heaven, hell, and judgment, are 
openly turned into ridicule, as childish fables.”— Henry's History. 


34 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


tions against John Wickliffe, “ as a person holding and promulgating 
many erroneous and heretical opinions.” The nineteenth of the same 
month was fixed on for his trial, and a summons dispatched to Oxford 
requiring his presence at the time and place appointed. To us, who 
look back upon this movement through the subsequent developments 
of history, it seems an event of no little interest and importance. It 
was the first war-cry of the enemy ; the signal for that battle which 
was to bathe the soil of England with the blood of her noblest sons 
and daughters, and was never to cease till the Bible and its principles 
should become triumphant over the hosts of darkness and error. 

Wickliffe did not shrink from the conflict, which he must have long 
foreseen. He immediately came down to London, prepared to meet 
the charges of his enemies with the weapons of scripture truth. But 
it was well understood, that these were.of little account in the ” holy 
convocation” before which he was to answer ; and two of his power¬ 
ful court friends—John, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward 
III., and Percy, Earl Marshal of England—determined to accompany 
him, and see that he had fair play. When we remember the unlimited 
power of this high court in matters of religion, the unscrupulous char¬ 
acter of its members, and that Wickliffe had assailed them in interests 
vital to their very existence, this will not seem an unnecessary or inju¬ 
dicious kindness. 

The nineteenth of February came. At an early hour, the immense 
interior of old St. Paul’s was densely filled with prelates, priests and 
citizens ; while a noisy, heaving, struggling crowd blackened the sur¬ 
rounding area. Courtney, Bishop of London, seated on the magnifi¬ 
cent episcopal throne, and surrounded by robed and mitred digni¬ 
taries, smiled in conscious power and anticipated triumph. Would 
Wickliffe venture to appear ? Or would he flee, and hide himself 
from the vengeance he had provoked ? In either case, he was a 
doomed man. What then must have been the prelate’s surprise and 
rage, when the opening crowd disclosed the apostolic figure of Wick¬ 
liffe, robed in his simple college gown, and leaning on his peaceful 
white staff, between the martial forms of Lancaster and Percy ! For¬ 
getting all prudence and propriety, he started angrily from his seat, 
and addressed the two noblemen in a tone of insolent rebuke, such as 
peers and soldiers are not wont to endure patiently. Their reply was 
in a spirit no less haughty ; and the fierce colloquy ended in a tumult 
which broke up the meeting, and the innocent occasion of the uproar 
quietly withdrew, without having been asked a question, or having 
uttered a word. 

But his enemies were not to be thus baffled. They now determined 


THE POPE AND BISHOPS IN THE FIELD. 35 

to invest their proceedings with an authority to which all must bow, 
viz., that of the Pope himself.—His Holiness gave ready ear to 
their application. In the June following the abortive meeting at St. 
Paul’s, no less than five bulls were sent from Avignon to England, all 
having for their object the apprehension of Wicldiffe, and his delivery 
to the ecclesiastical power. One was addressed to the King, three to 
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London, and one to 
the University of Oxford. The purport of all was the same. The 
Head of the Church deplores the defection of England from the true 
way, made known to him by persons of credit, so that she who was 
once the defender of the faith has become the nurse of heresy. This 
sad change is ascribed chiefly to “ the labors of John Wickliffe, Mas¬ 
ter in Divinity, more properly Master in Error, who had proceeded to 
a degree of madness so detestable, as not to fear to assert, dogmatize, 
and publicly teach opinions the most false and erroneous, contrary to 
the faith, and tending to the entire subversion of the Church.” It is 
enjoined, therefore, that if, on inquiry, these charges prove to be well 
founded, said Wickliffe be committed to prison, and kept in sure cus¬ 
tody till he shall have answered to the accusation, and judgment be 
received thereon from the Holy See. The Bishops are exhorted to 
use all diligence to guard the King, the Prince of Wales, the nobility, 
and royal councillors from the infection of these pestilent errors. 
The King is called on to sustain the authority of the clergy, in doing 
their duty in the execution of these bulls. The University is sum¬ 
moned, by virtue of the obedience due to the apostolic letters, and on 
pain of losing all graces, indulgences, and privileges granted to it by 
the Holy See, to deliver up the person of John Wickliffe, and of all 
others embracing his errors, into the custody of the prelates commis¬ 
sioned by the Pontiff for that purpose. 

Thus terrible to the kingdom of darkness, is a man who gives fear¬ 
less utterance to the truth ! 

The death of Edward III., the same month in which these formida¬ 
ble instruments were prepared at Avignon, and the reestablishment of 
Lancaster’s power on the accession of the youthful Richard II., in¬ 
duced the prelates to suspend their vengeance for a time ; so that the 
existence of these bulls was known to none but themselves, until the 
following January. Meantime Wickliffe did not fail to give them 
abundant occasion to “ nurse their wrath and keep it warm, against 
the favorable hour. The first parliament under the new king, held in 
October, resumed with great spirit the subject of papal encroachment. 
In the course of the discussion, a question came up on which Wick- 
liffe’s opinion was demanded, it is said, in the name of the king, viz.. 


36 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


“ Whether the kingdom of England may lawfully, in case of neces¬ 
sity, detain and keep back the treasure of the kingdom for its own 
defence, that it be not carried away to .foreign and strange nations, 
the Pope himself demanding and requiring the same under pain of 
censure and by virtue of obedience?” This was not a question of 
abstract right, but one of imminent practical import at the very mo¬ 
ment—England being then at war with France, and the French Pope, 
by virtue of his spiritual office, draining her of money to furnish 
weapons to her enemy. 

In his reply, Wickliffe, as usual, goes to the root of the matter, by 
an appeal to the nature and tenure of the apostolic office, as exhibited 
in the New' Testament. “ Christ saith to the Apostles : ‘ The kings 
of the nations rule over them, but ye shall not do so.’ Here lordship 
and rule is forbidden to the Apostles, and darest thou [their succes¬ 
sor] usurp the same ? If thou wilt be a lord, thou shalt lose thy 
apostleship ; or, if thou wilt be an apostle, thou shalt lose thy lord- 
ship ; for truly thou must depart from one of them. If thou wilt 
have both, thou shalt lose both, or be of that number of whom God 
complains : They have reigned, but not through me ; they have be¬ 
come princes, and I have not known it.’ Now, if it doth suffice thee 
to rule with the Lord, thou hast thy glory. But if we will keep what 
is forbidden us, let us hear what he saith : ‘ He that is greatest among 
you, shall be made as the least ; and he which is highest shall be as 
the servant and for an example, he set a child in the midst of them. 
So then, this is ihe true form and institution of the Apostle’s trade ; 

LORDSHIP AND RULE IS FORBIDDEN ; MINISTRATION AND SERVICE 

commanded.” Therefore, concludes the Reformer, the temporal 
goods heretofore bestowed on the Pope were not his by the right 
apostolical, but simply as alms, given at the pleasure of the donor. 
And as the duty of alms-giving is measured by the necessity of the 
recipient andahe ability of the donor, it cannot be the duty of Eng¬ 
land, in her present impoverished condition, to bestow charity on the 
Pope, who is already overloaded with riches. Wherefore, England 
may detain her treasure for her own defence, even against the direct 
command of the Pope. With such simplicity and ease did Wickliffe, 
with the New Testament for his guide, loose a knot which had been 
tightening for centuries, and was now puzzling the wisest heads of the 
age. 

But it was now his enemies’ turn to strike a blow. Three months 
after this, a special messenger conveyed the papal bull, so long con¬ 
cealed, to Oxford, and delivered it in due form to the Chancellor of 
the University. In an accompanying letter, the prelates demanded 


THE POPE AND BISHOPS IN THE FIELD. 37 

that Wickliffe be sent to St. Paul’s, there to make answer to the 
charges against him. The University authorities, displeased with this 
papal and episcopal interference in their affairs, showed no haste to 
comply. But a synod being assembled at Lambeth in April, Wick¬ 
liffe promptly obeyed a summons to be present. 

This time, he faced his enemies alone. A written statement of his 
imputed errors and heresies being furnished him, he, in turn, replied 
to the charges in writing, improving the occasion to give a still more 
full and distinct exposition of his views. Exceptions have been taken 
to this document as, in some portions, seemingly vague and evasive in 
its character. But in his perfect clearness in the statement of views 
most hazardous to express before such an assembly, and in the man¬ 
ner in which the paper was received by his opponents, we have suffi¬ 
cient evidence that all the weapons used by the Reformer on this 
occasion were worthy of his character, and well chosen for the time 
and place. The assertion that political dominion, or civil secular 
government, inheres in the laity, not in Peter or his successors ; and 
that it is lawful for the secular power to take away temporalities from 
churchmen who habitually abuse them, “ notwithstanding excommuni¬ 
cation , or any other church censure ,” could not have been misunder¬ 
stood by the tribunal before which he was arraigned. But he took a 
yet higher and bolder tone. It had come to be understood, thai all- 
legislative and judicial competency in religious matters was vested in 
the clergy ; that they, in fact, constituted the church ; while the 
part of the laity was simply that of implicit, blind submission. In 
opposition to this, Wickliffe maintains that ecclesiastics, nay, even th$ 
Pope of Rome himself may, in some cases, be corrected by their sub* 
jects, and “ for the benefit of the Church, be impleaded by both clergy 
and laity.” For the Pope, he argues, being our peccable brother and 
liable to sin as well as we, is, like us, subject to the law of brotherly 
reproof. “When, therefore,” he proceeds, “the whole college of 
cardinals is remiss in correcting him for the necessary welfare of the 
Church, it is evident that the rest of the body , which, as it may chance, 
may chiefly be made up of the laity, may medicinally reprove and im¬ 
plead him, and reduce him to lead a better life.” 

What would have been the issue of this trial, it is not difficult to 
conjecture, had it not been averted as unexpectedly as before at St. 
Paul’s. Deliverance came, however, in this case, from a very differ¬ 
ent source, and in a manner which testified the spread of "Wickliffe s 
opinions among the common people. A general alarm for his safety 
prevailed among his friends, increased, no doubt, by the fact that the 
tiial was conducted before a secret tribunal. This feeling burst forth 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


33 

at last into act. The populace began to stream from various quarters 
toward the place of meeting, and were there joined by many of the 
first citizens of London. Pressing their way into the building, the 
excited crowd burst open the door of the council-room, and rushing 
in, loudly demanded Wickliffe. And when, in the midst of the 
tumult, Sir Lewis Clifford entered the assembly, and in the name of 
the King’s mother (widow of the Black Prince) forbade any definitive 
sentence by the Court, a panic fear seized on the bold churchmen. 
In the indignant words of one of their own historians,* they became 
“ as a reed shaken by the wind, and grew soft as oil in their speech, 
to the manifest forfeiture of their dignity and the injury of the whole 
Church. With such fear were they struck, that one would have 
thought them as a man who hears not, or in whose mouth there are 
no reproofs.” So far from being detained “in custody and sure 
prison,” while awaiting the /lecision of the Holy See, Wickliffe 
returned peaceably to Oxford, to lecture, preach, and write against 
the sins of Popery with more zeal and effect than ever. The expected 
sentence from Avignon never arrived. The death of Gregory XI. 
while the matter was still pending, and the distractions incident on 
the “ Schism of the Popes”f which followed, turned the attention of 
the clergy in another direction, and the Reformer was'left for some 
•three years longer, to pursue his career unmolested. 

* Walsingham. 

f During the next fifty years, the Papal Church was blessed with two and 
sometimes three infallible heads, who mutually accused each other as heretics, 
Simonists, impostors, and everything else that is vile and impious—“ not the 
worst proof,” as Henry quaintly remarks, “ of their infallibility.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE NEW-TESTAMENT MINISTRY REVIVED. 

Not far from this time, Wickliffe started a movement which, for its 
vital bearings on the interests of religion and for the perpetuity of its 
influence, stands second only to his great work of giving the Bible to 
the people. 

From the study of the New Testament, he had arrived at certain 
conclusions very much at variance with the opinions of the time. 
Some of these have already been noted in the foregoing narrative ; 
but, for the sake of clearness, the principal points will here be men¬ 
tioned, in connection with others. He believed— 

ist. That the primitive Church recognized no hierarchy , with its 
ascending ranks and orders of spiritual princes. “ By the ordinance 
of Christ,” says he, 44 priests and bishops were all one. But after¬ 
ward, the Emperor divided them, and made bishops to be lords, and 
priests their servants.” “ I boldly assert one thing, viz. : that in the 
primitive Church or in the time of Paul, two orders of the clergy were 
sufficient, that is, a priest and a deacon. In like manner, I maintain 
that in the time of Paul, presbyter and bishops were names of the 
same office.—-All other degrees and orders have their origin in the 
pride of Caesar. If indeed they were necessary to the Church, Christ 
would not have been silent respecting them. Every Christian should 
judge of the office of the clergy from what is taught in Scripture, 
especially in the Epistles of Timothy and Titus, and should not admit 
the new inventions of Caesar.” 

2d. That the priest's office is simply that of the ministry of the word. 
The legislative right claimed by Popes, prelates and councils, and the 
power of excommunication and absolution attributed to every member 
of the clerical order, were, in his view, impious invasions of the pre¬ 
rogatives of Christ. 

3d. That it is the right and duty of all priests , by virtue of their 
office , to preach the gospel ; and this, without waiting for any special 
license from bishops ; nay—so stringent is the obligation—even in the 
face of their prohibition. 44 The highest service to which man may 
attain on earth" —such are his noble words— 44 is to preach the word 
of God. This service falls peculiarly to priests, and therefore God 


40 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


more straitly demands it of them. Hereby should they produce chil¬ 
dren to God, and this is the end for which God wedded the Church. 
It might indeed be good to have a son that were lord of this world ; 
but better far to have a son in God, who, as member of Holy Church, 
shall ascend to heaven. And for this reason, Christ left other works, 
and occupied himself mostly in preaching, and thus did his apostles, 
and for this God loved them.”—“ Jesus Christ, when he ascended to 
heaven, commanded it especially to all his disciples, to go and preach 
the gospel freely to all men. So also when Christ spoke last with 
Peter, he bade him thrice, as he loved him, to feed his sheep ; and 
this a wise shepherd would not have done, if he had not himself loved 
it well. In this stands the office of the spiritual shepherd. And as 
the bishops of the temple hindered Christ, so is he hindered now by 
the hindering of this deed. Therefore Christ told them that at the 
day of doom, Sodom and Gomorrah should fare better than they.. 
And thus, if our bishops preach not themselves, and hinder true 
priests from preaching, they are in the sin of the bishops who killed 
the Lord Jesus Christ.” 

4th. Thatihe ministry is to be supported by the voluntary contributions 
of the people. As we have seen, Wickliffe had long maintained, that 
ecclesiastical endowments were opposed to the spirit of the New Tes¬ 
tament, and were one of the main sources of the corruption of the 
clergy. But he goes farther than this. In his view, the system of 
tithes had no better foundation. “ Men wonder highly,” says he in 
a treatise entitled ‘ The Curse Expounded , ’ ” why curates are so 
severe in exacting tithes, since Christ and his apostles took no tithes, 
as men do now ; neither paid them, nor even spoke of them, either in 
the Gospel or the Epistles, which are the perfect law of freedom and 
grace. But Christ lived on the alms of holy women, as the Gospel 
telleth ; and the apostles lived sometimes by the labor of their hands, 
and sometimes took a poor livelihood and clothing, given of free will 
and devotion by the people, without asking or constraining.” “ Paul 
proved that priests, preaching truly the gospel, should live by the 
gospel,, and said naught of tithes. Certainly tithes were due to priests 
in the Old Law—but it is not so now, in the law of grace.” “ Lord ! 
why should our worldly priests charge Christian people with tithes, 
offerings, and customs, more than did Christ and his apostles ? 
Would to God, that all wise and true men would inquire, whether it 
were not better to find good priests, by free alms of the people, with 
a reasonable and poor livelihood, to teach the gospel in word and 
deed as did Christ and his apostles, than thus to pay tithes to a 
worldly priest, ignorant and negligent, as men are now compelled to 


THE NEW-TESTAMENT MINISTRY REVIVED. 


4 r 


do by bulls and new ordinances of priests !”* In connection with 
this, he maintains' that ordination by a bishop confers no fitness for 
the sacred office ; it is merely the outward recognition of a fitness 
which can come from God alone, and when this is proved to be want¬ 
ing, becomes in the nature of the case, null and void. The people 
should themselves decide in this matter, by comparing the life of the 
teacher thus placed over them with the infallible standard of Scrip¬ 
ture. 

The revival of the New Testament principle, in a body of pious, 
self-denying working ministers, depending for their maintenance on 
the voluntary contributions of those for whom the) r labored, became 
now one of Wickliffe’s prime objects. His wonderful success in this 
undertaking attests how strong, and how deeply spiritual, was his 
influence among the youth of Oxford. Christ himself was the model 
on which he sought to form them for this self-denying work. 

“ Jesus himself,” says he, “ did indeed the lessons he taught. The 
Gospel relates how he went about, in places of the country both great 
and small, in cities and castles, or in small towns, and this that he 
might teach us to become profitable to men everywhere, and not to for¬ 
bear to preach to a people because they are few, and our name may 
not in consequence be great. For we should labor for God, and 
from Him hope for our reward. There is no doubt that Christ went 
into small uplandish towns, as to Bethphage and Cana in Galilee, for 
Christ went to all those places where he wished to do good. He 
labored not for gain, he was not smitten with pride or covetousness.” 
“ It was ever the manner of Jesus, to speak the words of God wher¬ 
ever he knew they might be profitable to those who heard them. 

* x n these views we find an easy solution of the disrepute in which Wickliffe 
has been held by writers of the Church of England. The pious Milner (Church 
History) is filled with horror at the Reformer’s radical notions of clerical emolu¬ 
ment. It is no wonder, he thinks, that a man who entertained such views of 
tithes, should have been suspected of abetting Wat Tyler and other incendiaries 
of the’ time of Richard II. His illustration of the inconvenient results of Wick¬ 
liffe’s doctrine is a specimen of naiveti hardly to be excelled. “ He disliked,” 
says he, “all church endowments, and wished to have the clergy reduced to a 
state of*poverty. He insists that parishioners have a right to withhold tithes 
from pastors who are guilty of fornication. Now, if, in such cases, he would 
have allowed every individual to judge for himself, who does not see what a door 
might be opened to confusion, fraud, and the encouragement of avarice !”— 
Luther’s and Melancthon’s prejudice against Wickliffe is explicable on the same 
ground. They could hardly believe that a man holding such heterodox views of 
clerical property, could understand the doctrine of justification by faith. Surely 
“ the best of men are but men at best !” But the wincing proves how vital a 
point of State religions had been touched by the uncourteous Reformer. 


42 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Hence Christ often preached, now at meat, now at supper, and indeed 
at whatever time it was convenient for others to hear him.” “ Christ 
sought man’s soul, lost through sin, thirty years and more, with great 
travail and weariness, and many thousand miles upon his feet, in 
cold, and storm, and tempest.” As the result of these efforts a band 
of young missionaries, fully imbued with their instructor’s views and 
glowing with a kindred zeal, dispersed themselves through the remote 
villages and hamlets of England, preaching to all who would listen, 
the glad tidings of a free salvation. Like the seventy sent out by our 
Lord, they went on foot, clad in coarse garments, the pilgrim’s staff 
in their hands—and, if so happy as to own such a treasure—with a 
Latin Bible hid in the bosom of their gowns. Wherever they found 
an audience—whether in a church or a church-yard, in the busy 
market-place, amid the noisy chaffering and boisterous amusements of 
the fair—there they proclaimed to the people “ all the words of this 
life.” To the venal sale of indulgences and priestly absolution, they 
opposed the unbought grace of the gospel ; to the invocation of 
saints, the one Mediator between God and man ; to the worship of 
pictures and images, the worship of the one living and true God ; to 
the traditions of men and the authority of priests, the pure revela¬ 
tion of God’s will in the Holy Scriptures. Their own blameless lives 
enforced their teachings. Asking nothing, they received thankfully 
what was required for their simple wants ; and even from this were 
ever ready to spare something for the needy. The contrast thus fur¬ 
nished with the gross lives and insatiable beggary of the Friars, was 
too striking to be overlooked. The apostolic motto, “ Not yours, 
but you,” which was written on all their labors, sunk with the power 
of demonstration into the people’s heart Such was their zeal, and 
such the eagerness with which they were received, that whole shires 
became pervaded with their doctrines. John Ashton, it is said, was 
personally known over half of England. So rapid was their increase 
in numbers and influence within four years, that in 1382 a great Con¬ 
vocation was assembled in London, for the special purpose of concert¬ 
ing measures to arrest their progress. The archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury, the bishops and other prelates, masters of divinity, doctors of 
civil and canon law, and a great part of the clergy of the realm being 
there present, united in an appeal to the king for the suppression of 
these preachers, as a body of men who were perverting the whole 
nation with their heretical and seditious doctrines. A decree, framed 
for this purpose by the assembled prelates, received the secret concur¬ 
rence of the king and lords, and was surreptitiously inserted in the 
statute-book as a regular Act of Parliament. After a statement of the 


THE NEW-TESTAMENT MINISTRY REVIVED. 


43 


imminent danger to the Church and realm, the document thus con¬ 
cludes : It is therefore ordained and assented in this present Parlia¬ 
ment, that the king’s commission be made and directed to the sheriffs 
and other ministers of our sovereign lord the king, or other sufficient 
persons, and, according to the certifications of the prelates thereof, to 
be made in the chancery from time to time, to arrest all such preach¬ 
ers, and also their fautors, maintainers and abettors, and hold them in 
arrest and strong prison, till they shall purify themselves according to 
the law and reason of Holy Church. And the kingwilleth and com- 
mandeth, that the Chancellor make such commission at all times that 
he, by the prelates or any of them, shall be certified and thereof 
required, as aforesaid.” 

When this fraud was discovered by the lower House, they insisted 
that the act should be repealed ; but the prelates so managed that it 
kept its place in the statute-book, and through many succeeding years 
formed the basis of prosecutions for heresy. 

The measures thus resolved on were followed up with energy, but 
with little effect. The love of the people was as a wall of fire round 
about their faithful teachers. Many country baronets of wealth and 
influence likewise espoused their cause ; and sometimes, when danger 
was apprehended, a body-guard of gentlemen was seen around the 
pulpit, ready, if necessary, to defend with their good swords the 
right of Englishmen to speak and to hear, according to the dictates 
of their own consciences. The intimidated sheriff, having served on 
the preacher a citation to appear before the bishop, would retire ; and 
before adequate forces could be raised to execute the writ, the evan¬ 
gelist was proclaiming in some far-off hamlet the glad tidings of salva¬ 
tion to its neglected poor. The devices of prelates, and the decrees 
of kings, were not able to break again “ the apostolic succession” 
thus revived by Wickliffe ; nor has it been interrupted from that day 
to the present. From that day, the Bible-conception of the Christian 
ministry, evolved in such beautiful completeness by this master-spirit 
five hundred years ago, has been slowly leavening the English mind ; 
and from the conflicts for religious liberty to which it has given 
birth, civil freedom likewise has caught its noblest impulses. To 
estimate its full import, we must trace its influence through English 
history till its full development, on these western shores, gave to the 
world the spectacle of a Christian nation, without a State Church ; 
where government is maintained, and religion flourishes, without a 
Bishop or, a King. 


CHAPTER VII. 


WICKLIFFE ATTACKS THE CITADEL OF PAPAL INFLUENCE. 

We must now briefly contemplate Wickliffe in yet one more conflict, 
deeply interesting in itself, and still more interesting as forming the 
transition to the greatest, and closing labor of his life. 

In the years 1379-80, the subject of the Eucharist assumed a very 
prominent place in his lectures at Oxford. In this doctrine, as held 
in the papal Church, the Reformer grappled with no mere airy meta¬ 
physical dogma. The welcome it received from the Romish clergy 
when first promulgated, in the ninth century, and the tenacity with 
which they have clung to it even down to the present day, attests their 
appreciation of its practical importance. “ The sacrament of com¬ 
munion,” says a recent Catholic writer,* ” is the highest of our mys¬ 
teries, and is the central point of all the institutions of the Catholic 
Church.” And again : “ The Catholic view of communion pervades 
the whole Catholic religious and ecclesiastical system.” “ By the 
reformation of the sixteenth century, the whole Catholic system was 
attacked ; as the reformers, rejecting the traditions of the Church, 
took the Bible alone for their guide in matters of belief, and depart¬ 
ed, at the same time, from the Catholic theory of communion. If they 
had left the Catholic doctrine on communion, the priesthood and Mass 
would necessarily have remained too.” A consideration of a few 
leading points involved in the doctrine fully justifies these assertions ; 
and shows that it forms the dividing line between Romanism, with its 
traditions, its mystic sense, and its blind submission to the priesthood, 
on the one side, and on the other, Protestantism, with its respect for 
the human understanding, and its acceptance of the Bible as supreme 
authority. 

Its very starting-point was the repudiation of the bodily senses, of* 
the reason, and of Scripture, as reliable sources of evidence. The 
dictum of the Church was here all and in all. Sight, smell, taste, 
touch, though obstinately reporting the bread to be still bread ; the 
plainest conclusions of reason, and the obvious import of Scripture ; 

* See the article Lords Supper , in the Encyc. Americana, where tjie Romish 
view is presented by one of its adherents with great clearness, and will be seen 
to differ in no respect from that combated by Wickliffe in the fourteenth century. 


WICKLIFFE ATTACKS THE PAPAL CITADEL. 45 

all weighed nothing in opposition to that “ mystic sense,” which the 
Church had seen fit to impose on the ordinance of the Supper. So 
interpreted, it presented a strange combination of Jewish and Pagan 
ideas under Christian names. It was Jewish, in its notion of a.per¬ 
petually repeated sacrifice for sin ; for, at each performance of Mass, 
the living Christ, ” body and blood, soul and divinity,” was offered 
anew as a propitiation to the Father ! It was Pagan, in its worship 
of an inanimate, created object as God, and in its multiplication of 
gods. For not only did the wafer become, by the consecrating 
words, a proper object of adoration, but each separate fragment into 
which it was broken contained the whole Christ, and was to be wor¬ 
shipped as such. Of the spiritual worship of the one invisible, uncre¬ 
ated God, and of the atonement made by Christ, once for all, nothing 
was left but these monstrous, distorted shadows. 

From this view of the Lord’s Supper, necessarily proceeded that of 
the mysterious sanctity and prerogatives of the clerical office. Who 
could set limits to the spiritual power of one who could thus make 
his Maker”? By what arguments could the credulous believer be per¬ 
suaded, that anathemas and absolutions from lips that pronounced the 
awful ” Hoc corpus meum,” were of no effect ? 1 he simple minister 

of the word thus rose into the dignity of a sacrificing priest, whose 
consecrated hands offered the atonement, without which there was no 
remission of sins. Nay, he could reach even to the place of departed 
spirits, and there reverse the decisions of God himself on those who 
had died in sin. It was chiefly through this doctrine, that the Romish 
clergy had obtained their strange sway over the minds of men ; for 
having, in regard to this vital point, given up the Scriptures, reason, 
and their very senses, into the keeping of their spiritual guides, there 
was nothing to save them from being blind victims of every other im¬ 
position. Body and soul were both sealed for bondage. The outer 
light of Scripture was taken away ; the light that was in them became 
darkness. 

There has been much controversy as to the precise views enter¬ 
tained by Wickliffe himself in regard to the Eucharist, originating 
probably in a misapprehension of the obscure scholastic language of 
his learned discussions. Nothing can be the more explicit, or satis-*- 
factory, than the views expressed in his- English writings on the sub¬ 
ject, intended for the common people. Thus in his “ Wyckett, an 
English treatise in defence of the scripture doctrine of the Supper, he 
asks, “ May the thing made turn again and make him that made it ? 
Thou then that art an earthly man, by what reason mayst thou say 
that thou makest thy Maker ? Were this doctrine true, it would fol- 


4 6 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


low that the thing which is not God to-day shall be God to-morrow ; 
yea, the thing that is without spirit of life, but groweth in the field by 
nature, shall another time be God. And yet we ought to believe that 
G°d. is without beginning or ending.” 44 Christ saith, I am a very 
vine. Wherefore do ye not worship the vine for God, as ye do the 
bread ? Wherein was Christ a very vine ? Or wherein was the bread 
Christ’s body ? It was in figurative speech, which is hidden to the 
understanding of sinners. And thus, as Christ became not a material 
or earthly vine, nor a material vine the body of Christ, so neither is 
material bread changed for its substance into the flesh and blood of 
Christ.” 

But whether, in that dark age, he attained to perfect light on this 
or other doctrines, is to us of little moment, compared with his noble 
vindication of the two great Protestant principles—the word of God 
the sole guide in matters of religion ; individual inquiry and convic¬ 
tion the right and duty of all men. 

It was from this purely Protestant stand-point, that Wickliffe assailed 
the vital dogma of the Papacy. He resented the indignity it offered, 
both to the reason which God had kindled as a light in the soul of 
man, and to the revelation of his own will in the Scriptures. “ Of all 
the heresies that have ever sprung up in the Church,” thus he writes 
in the Trialogus, “ I think there is not one more artfully introduced 
by hypocrites, or one imposing such manifold fraud on the people. 
It repudiates the Scriptures ; it wrongs the people ; it causes them to 
commit idolatry. It is not reasonable to suppose that God can have 
designed to put confusion on that intelligence which he has himself 
implanted in our nature. Of all the external senses that God has be¬ 
stowed on man, touch and taste are the least liable to err in the judg¬ 
ment they give. But this heresy would overturn the evidence of these 
senses, and without cause ; surely the sacrament which does that must 
be a sacrament of Antichrist.” 44 Let the knowledge obtained by our 
external senses deceive us, and the internal senses will, of necessity, 
fall under the same delusion. But what,” he exclaims, “ can have 
moved the Lord Jesus Christ thus to confound and destroy all power 
of natural discernment, in the senses and minds of his worshippers ?” 

“ It is,” he says in his Trialogus, “ as if the Devil had been scheming 
to this effect, saving—* If I can, by my vicar Antichrist, so far seduce 
believers as to bring them to deny that this sacrament is bread, 
and to believe in it as a' contemptible quality without a substance, I 
may after that, and in the same manner, lead them to believe whatever 
I may wish ; inasmuch as the opposite is plainly taught, both by the 
language of Scripture, and by the very senses of mankind.’ Doubt- 


WICKLIFFE ATTACKS THE PAPAL CITADEL. 47 

less, after a while, these simple-hearted believers may be brought to 
say, that however a prelate may live—be he effeminate, a homicide, a 
simonist, or stained with any other vice—this must never be believed 
concerning him by a people who would be regarded as duly obedient. 
But by the grace of Christ, I will keep clear of the heresy which 
teaches that if the Pope and Cardinals assert a certain thing to be the 
sense of Scripture, therefore so it is ; for that were to set them above 
the Apostles.” 

But though he would not allow the witness of the human senses and 
reason to be set aside by mere Church authority, the Scriptures were, 
on this as on every other doctrine, the only infallible guide. “ Let 
every ( man,” he says in the conclusion of his ‘ YVyckett,’ “wisely, 
with much care and great study, and also with charity, read the words 
of God in the Holy Scriptures.” “ Now, therefore, pray we heartily 
to God that this evil time may be made short, for the sake of the 
chosen men, as he hath promised in his holy Gospel; and that the 
large and broad way to perdition maybe stopped, and that the straight 
and narrow way which leadeth to bliss maybe made open by the Holy 
Scriptures, that we may know what is the will of God, to serve him 
with truth and holiness, in the dread of God, that we may find by him 
a way of bliss everlasting. So be it !” 

For two or three years, Wickliffe was zealously engaged in dissemi¬ 
nating these views in the lecture-room, in the pulpit, and by his ever 
active pen. That he was permitted to do it so long unquestioned, he 
owed chiefly to the distractions in the papacy, which, for a long 
period, furnished the prelates of Christendom with full occupation. 
But from the sequel, it is clear that his course was watched by eager 
foes, who were merely “biding their time.” Such he had even at 
Oxford, and by various changes, they at length came to have the 
ascendency in the University administration. In the spring of 1381, 
Wickliffe challenged the University to a public disputation on the sub¬ 
ject of the Eucharist. In the twelve theses which he published as the 
basis of the discussion, he declared that “ the bread we see on the 
altar is not Christ, nor any part of him, but simply an effectual sign 
of him ; and that the doctrines of transubstantiation, identification, 
and impanation, have no basis in Scripture.” This brought on the 
crisis. Berton, their chancellor, being a partizan of the' Religious 
Orders, and, of course, hostile to Wickliffe, resolved that he should 
not have the eclat of a victory at Oxford. Instead, therefore, of re¬ 
sponding to his challenge, he assembled a secret council of twelve 
theological doctors, eight being from the Orders, who unanimously 
pronounced Wickliffe’s doctrine to be erroneous, and contrary to the 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


determinations of the Church. They decreed, furthermore, that “ if 
any person, of whatever degree, state, or condition, shall in future 
publicly teach such doctrine in the University, or shall.listen to one 
so teaching, he shall be suspended from all scholastic exercises, shall 
be liable to the greater excommunication, and shall be committed to 
prison.” Truly, a compendious method for purging Oxford of 
heresy ! 

Wickliffewas seated in his lecture-room, discussing this very subject 
before his class, when the University officers entered, and announced 
the above decrees. It has been asserted by his enemies, that he be¬ 
trayed some confusion while listening to the proclamation. It surely 
would argue no remarkable weakness, had so sudden and rude an as¬ 
sault—and in that place of all others—shaken his firm spirit for the 
moment. Wickliffe was not a man of iron nerves, but, as we see from 
his portrait, and from the reflection of his life and writings, of the 
most quick and lively sensibility. The emotion was but for an in¬ 
stant. Rising with dignity, as soon as the reading of the official docu¬ 
ment was finished, he protested against this arbitrary suppression of 
opinions, which could not be confuted in a free discussion, and de¬ 
clared his intention to appeal to the King for the protection of his 
rights. 

The Chancellor's power could not reach beyond Oxford. Wickliffe 
therefore retired to Lutterworth, and devoted himself to writing and 
preaching, while awaiting a reversal of Berton’s unjust decision. But 
this never came. The rud^ dismissal, thus described, proved to be 
the close of his connection with a school of sacred learning of which 
he had been so long the most illustrious ornament. No doubt it was 
an event in many ways painful to himself, and exulted in by his ene¬ 
mies as a signal, if not final victory over the bold Reformer. Could 
they have foreseen the result, they would have left him unmolested in 
the Professor’s chair. Their short-sighted hatred served but to in¬ 
troduce that crowning period of his labors, which gave to priestcraft 
in England its deadly wound, and made his influence and name im¬ 
perishable. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


wickliffe’s writings for the people. 

From the period of Wickliffe’s retirement to Lutterworth, a marked 
change appears in the direction of his labors. The plans of reform on 
which he had spent so large a portion of his best years, seemed now 
farther from realization than ever. All hope of improvement pro¬ 
ceeding from the “ Head of the Church,” from the clergy, or from 
the enlightened action of the secular power, was now seen to be vain. 
Even Oxford, the last refuge of intellectual and religious freedom, 
had barred her doors against him. It all served but to ripen in his 
mind the great idea,' by which his labors were to be separated from 
the decaying Past, and to receive a living, organic connection with 
the whole future of his country and his race. He turns from king 
and noble, from Pope, and priest and scholar, with the determination 
to place the light of divine truth, freed from all veil or covering, in the 
honest keeping of the common people. 

Under the inspiration of this idea, Wickliffe entered with redoubled 
vigor on the final stage of his activity. He was now in his fifty-sev¬ 
enth year ; and though disease, and the excitements of his stormy life 
had shaken his bodily frame, the eagle spirit seemed gifted with 
more than youthful fire. Never before had he exhibited such pro¬ 
ductive energy. His English writings for the people budded under 
his pen like leaves in spring. It is evident, from various passages in 
his works, that he looked upon this golden opportunity as very brief ; 
that persecution, to close perhaps in martyrdom, was among the 
anticipations of each to-morrow. He labored, therefore, as one who 
has a message of life and death to deliver, and fears he may net have 
time to utter it. “I should be worse than an infidel”—thus he 
writes in one of his works-on the Eucharist—“ were I not to defend 
unto the death the law of Christ ; and certain I am, that it is not in 
the power of the heretics, and disciples of antichrist, to impugn this 
evangelical doctrine. On the contrary, I trust through our Lord’s 
mercy to be superabundantly rewarded, after this short and miserable 
life, for the lawful contention which I wage. I know from the Gos¬ 
pel, that antichrist, with all his devices, can only kill the body ; but 
Christ, in whose cause I contend, can cast both body and soul into 


5o 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


hell-lire. Sure I am, that he will not suffer his servants to want what 
is needful for them, since he freely exposed himself to a dreadful 
death for their sakes, and has ordained that all his most beloved dis¬ 
ciples should pass through severe suffering with a view to their 
good.” 

It is a matter of regret, that the limits of this sketch allow only of a 
few brief extracts from these writings, so characteristic of the genius 
and spirit of the man. The whole range of subjects which had 
formed the groundwork of his life-labors, was here presented in a 
form admirably adapted to the common mind. In his own noble, 
homely, expressive English, the true language of the people, he 
unmasks the character, the false pretensions and corrupt doctrines of 
the priesthood ; and encourages the humble reader, in the exercise of 
the understanding which God has given him, enlightened by the 
Scriptures, to meet them like a free Christian man. They are not, 
however, mainly of a controversial nature, though most of them must, 
of necessity, contain pointed allusions to the specific sins and errors 
of the clergy. But his chief object, in the exposure of error, is to 
gain for the great saving truths of the Gospel, an immediate, life-im¬ 
parting contact with the souls of his readers. He seeks to detach 
them from their false guides, only that he may lead them to the one 
Saviour from sin and misery. 

Among the most interesting of his offerings to the poor and humble 
in society, are those little treatises, designed strictly as helps to a 
devout and holy life. His English writings, in general, are charac¬ 
terized by a brevity singular in that day of interminable folios. But 
these mark still more strikingly, the practical genius of the Reformer. 
Our modern religious tracts, that mighty agency for the diffusion of 
truth, are but the reproduction of the device struck from his pro¬ 
phetic brain five hundred years ago. “ The Poor Caitiff" * is a col¬ 
lection of such little detached pieces, none of them extending beyond 
a few pages, some only over a leaf or two, and others but a single 
page. From their extreme brevity, they could be multiplied and 
scattered almost without limit, even in an age when printing was un¬ 
known. It has been well said of Dr. Watts, that the true greatness 
of his character nowhere appears so clearly as in his “ Divine Songs 
for Children.” With yet deeper reverence do we sit at the feet of 
Wickliffe, the royal ambassador, the friend of princes, the most emi¬ 
nent scholar of his time, as with sublime simplicity, humility, and 

* Published in the “British Reformers” of the London Religious Tract 
Society. Caitiff was the common appellation of a person in the lower ranks. 


wickliffe’s writings for the people. 


51 


sweetness, he speaks to the neglected and degraded poor, these heav¬ 
enly words of instruction and consolation. They are the best refuta¬ 
tion of the malevolent charge that his influence tended to popular dis¬ 
order. Two or three passages must suffice here. 

“ To any degree of true love to Jesus, no soul can attain unless he 
be truly meek. For a proud soul seeks to have his own will, and so 
he shall never come to any degree of God’s love. Even the lower 
that a soul sitteth in the valley of meekness, so many the more streams 
of grace and love come thereto. And if the soul be high in the hills 
of pride, the wind of the fiend bloweth away all manner of goodness 
therefrom.” “ Singular love is, when all solace and comfort is closed 
out of the heart but the love of Jesus alone. Other delight or other 
joy pleases not ; for the sweetness of him is so comforting and lasting, 
his love is so burning and gladdening, that he who is in this degree 
may well feel the fire of love burning in his soul. That fire is so 
pleasant that no man can tell but he that feeleth it, and not fully he. 
Then the soul is Jesus loving, on Jesus thinking, and Jesus desiring, 
only burning in coveting of him ; singing in him, resting on him. 
Then the thought turns to song and melody.” “ God playeth with 
his child when he suffereth him to be tempted ; as a mother rises from 
her much beloved child, and hides herself and leaves him alone, and 
suffers him to cry, Mother, Mother, so that he looks about, cries and 
weeps for a time ; and at last, when the child is ready to be overset 
with troubles and weeping, she comes again, clasps him in her arms, 
kisses him and wipes away the tears. So our Lord suffereth his loved 
child to be tempted and troubled for a time, and withdraweth some of 
his solace and full protection, to see what his child will do ; and 
when he is about to be overcome by temptations, then he defendeth 
him and comforteth him by his grace.” 

These writings were the text-books of piety to the persecuted 
Church of Christ, for more than a hundred years-; and next to the 
English Bible, were the most efficient agency in molding its opinions 
and character, and in making ready, against the happier times to 
come, a people for the Lord. They often had the honor of being 
cast with the inspired word into the flames, or of mingling their ashes 
with those of the martyr, convicted of having read and believed their 
wc-rds, on whose faithful bosom they had been hung as a mark of 
shame. So largely were they multiplied, and so sacredly treasured by 
the people, that after a century and a half of rigid proscription and 
destruction, it was found no very difficult matter to make entire col¬ 
lections of these writings. 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE. 

But Wickliffe’s great work for the people was not yet done. The 
labors just narrated, though in themselves inestimable, were but the 
pioneers of one infinitely more important ; but voices, crying through 
the waste places of England, “ Prepare ye the way of the Lord !” This 
crowning work, even now progressing amid the hurry and pressure of 
his other toils, was the Translation of the entire Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testaments into the English tongue. 

There is no reason to suppose that this was a new idea to Wick- 
liffe’s mind. In the nature of the case it could hardly be so. From 
the very beginning of his career, we have seen him vindicating the 
supreme authority of the Scriptures against that of the self-styled 
Church. His appeal was ever to “ the Law and the Testimony/’ 
“ Whoever spoke not according to this word,” though it were the 
infallible Head of Christendom, ” there was no light in him.” In his 
efforts to enlighten the laity, the need of the inspired standard of 
truth, in their own language, must have pressed itself upon him with 
increasing weight. We find, accordingly, that even during the hurry 
of his public life, he had found leisure to prepare, from time to time, 
translations of single portions of the New Testament, in connection 
with expositions, for the use of the people. In the prologues to these 
works, the propriety and duty of giving the Scriptures to the laity, in 
their mother tongue, is claimed in the most explicit manner. Thus, 
in the prologue to Luke, he says :* “ Therefore a poor caitiff, let 
from preaching for a time for causes known of God, writeth the Gos¬ 
pel of Luke in English, with a short exposition of old and holy doc¬ 
tors, to the poor men of his nation, which know little Latin or none, 
and be poor of wit and worldly chattel and, natheless, rich of good 
will to please God.—Thus, with God’s grace, poor Christian men may 
somedeal know the text of the Gospel, with the common sentence of 
old, holy doctors, and therein know the meek and poor and charitable 
living of Christ and his apostles, to sue them in virtues and in bliss ; 
and also know the proud and covetous and veniable living of Anti- 


* Preface to Wickliffe’s Bible. 


THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE. 


53 


christ and his followers, to flee them and their cursed deeds, and 
pains of hell. For, no doubt, as our Lord Jesus Christ and his apos¬ 
tles profess plainly, Antichrist and his cursed disciples should come, 
and deceive many men by hypocrisy and tyranny ; and the best annor 
of Christian men against this cursed chieftain with his host, is the text 
of holy writ. Christ Jesus, for thine endless power, mercy, and 
charity, make thy blessed law known and kept of thy people. 
.Amen, good Lord Jesus !” So in his pro¬ 
logue to John’s Gospel : “ Our Lord Jesus Christ, very God and 
very man, came to serve poor, meek men, and to teach them the Gos¬ 
pel ; and for this cause St. Paul saith that he and other apostles of 
Christ be servants of Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ. And 
he saith also, I am debtor to wise men and unwise ; and, Bear ye the 
charges of one another, and so ye shall fill the law of Christ. There¬ 
fore a simple creature of God, willing to bear, in part, the charges of 
simple poor men well willing in God’s cause, writeth a short gloss in 
Fmglish on the Gospel of John.” 

These earlier translations mark a tendency in Wickliffe’s mind, 
which could hardly fail to expand, under favorable circumstances, 
into the purpose to give the whole Bible to his countrymen. Accord¬ 
ingly, from the period of his retirement from Oxford, the right of the 
laity to the Scriptures forms a prominent subject in his writings ; and 
is vindicated with a noble confidence in divine truth, and in the intel¬ 
ligence and honesty of the common mind, which some modern Prot¬ 
estants would do well to study. The following paragraph is worthy 
of being written in letters of gold : “As the faith of the Church is 
contained in the Scriptures, the more these are known in their true 
meaning the better ; and inasmuch as secular men should assuredly 
understand the faith they profess, that faith should be taught them in 
whatever language may be best known to them. Forasmuch, also, as 
the doctrines of our faith are more clearly and exactly expressed in 
the Scriptures, than they may probably be by priests—seeing, if I may 
so speak, that many prelates are but too ignorant of Holy Scripture, 
while others conceal many parts of it ; and as the verbal instructions 
of priests have many other defects—the conclusion is abundantly man¬ 
ifest, that believers should ascertain for themselves what are the true 
matters of their faith, by having the Scriptures in a language which 
they fully understand. For the laws made by prelates are not to be 
received as matters of faith, nor are we to confide in their public 
instructions, nor in any of their words, but as they are founded on 
Holy Writ—since the Scriptures contain the whole truth. And this 
translation of them into English should therefore do at least this 



54 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


good, viz.: placing bishops and priests above suspicion as to the parts 
of it which they profess to explain. Other means, such as the friars, 
prelates, the pope, may all prove defective ; and to provide against 
this, Christ and his Apostles evangelized the greater portion of the 
world, by making known the Scriptures to the people in their own 
language. To this end, indeed, did the Holy Spirit endow them with 
the knowledge of tongues. Why, then, should not the living disci¬ 
ples of Christ do in this respect as they did ?” 

The realization, for his own countrymen, of this manifest purpose 
of God in respect to all nations, now became the leading object of* 
Wicldiffe’s efforts. Calling in the assistance of the ripest scholars 
among his followers, he prosecuted the task with such vigor, that, in 
the year 1384, the entire translation was completed. The forge in the 
old rectory study must have glowed day and night during this period ; 
and yet, in such consummate silence did the hallowed labor proceed, 
that it was doing its work among the people before its existence was 
suspected by the clergy. The yell of rage with which they greeted its 
appearance, betrayed their consciousness that the ancient foundations 
of their power were shaken. 

This ancient version was not, indeed, made from the original 
sources—the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. No copies of these . 
existed at that time in all western Europe. Through converted Jewish 
scholars, a slight interest in the study of Hebrew had already been 
awakened on the continent ; but this had not yet extended to Eng¬ 
land. It had fared even worse with the Greek language, which was 
now as unknown on the island as though it had never had an exist¬ 
ence. 

In making his version from the Latin Vulgate, Wickliffe, therefore, 
only submitted to a necessity. It is matter of thankfulness that, in 
the absence of the original Scriptures, so good a representative of 
them* should have been within his reach. Jerome, who was the first 
Biblical scholar of his age, was thoroughly acquainted with both 
Greek and Hebrew ; and his version, being executed in the fourth 
century, was based on manuscripts older, by several centuries, than 
those to which later English translators had access. Hence, in not a 
few instances, Wickliffe’s translation gives the true meaning of a pas¬ 
sage, where its successors failed to do so. But, on the other hand, 

* “ The Vulgate,” says the learned and judicious Dr. George Campbell, “ is, 
in the main, a good and faithful version.” In reference to the accusation that it 
favors Popery, he adds : “ Could this point be evinced in a satisfactory manner, 
it would allow more to Popery, on the score of antiquity, than, in my opinion, 
she is entitled to.” 


THE FIRST ENGLISH BIBLE. 


55 


the disadvantages of translating from a translation, especially in the 
case of a book so ancient and so peculiar as the Bible, are of a very 
serious character. The copy follows the model in its errors as well as 
its excellencies. Some portions of the Vulgate were executed with 
unpardonable haste ; and in many points, Jerome was deterred from 
doing justice to his own scholarship, by tne storm of calumny and 
abuse brougnt upon him by his deviations from the defective versions 
then in popular use. In such cases there was no help for Wickliffe, 
except where Jerome was courageous enough to protest against his 
own translation in his notes. In the course of ten centuries, more¬ 
over, the text of the Vulgate itself had suffered much from the care¬ 
lessness or the arbitrary alterations of its monkish transcribers ; dnd 
though repeated attempts had been made for restoring it, the Latin 
Bibles of the fourteenth century were far from being a perfect repre¬ 
sentation of the original work. It is plain that a version executed 
under these circumstances could only serve a temporary purpose, and 
must give place to another when the advance of learning should 
restore the sacred originals to the hands of Christian scholars. 

But Wickliffe’s Bible has a glory which cannot be affected by its 
critical deficiencies. Its appearance was the virtual settlement of the 
great question of Christendom : “ Shall the people have the Script¬ 
ures ?” It was the prophecy and the earnest of Protestantism. 

Soon after the completion of this great work, Wickliffe was sum¬ 
moned from the toils and conflicts of life. On the 29th of December, 
1384, as he was performing divine service in the church at Lutter¬ 
worth, he was seized with paralysis ; and after lingering two or three 
days in a state of unconsciousness, the great soul which had struggled 
so long and so bravely against the hosts of darkness, awoke in the joy 
of its Lord. 

Within four years from his death, a revision of his translation was 
given to the public by his most intimate pupil and friend, John Pur¬ 
vey, being executed, no doubt, in obedience to his own injunctions. 
The alterations are confined mainly to those portions of the Old Tes¬ 
tament ascribed to Wickliffe’s chief coadjutor, Dr. Nicholas Hereford^ 
—a good scholar according to his age, but too literal and stiff in his, 
renderings. The remaining books of the Old Testament, and the 
whole of the New, were touched with caution, and retained almost 
unchanged the first impress of the master-hand. 


CHAPTER X. 


INFLUENCE OF WICKLIFFE’S VERSION. 

From the nations speaking the English tongue, Wickliffe’s version 
has claims to grateful reverence, which have never yet been fully ap¬ 
preciated. England’s first Bible, it was, for a hundred and thirty 
years, her only one. Not only so, but it constituted her earliest popu¬ 
lar literature. For, with the exception of Wickliffe’s own writings, it 
was the first book of any magnitude ever written in the English lan¬ 
guage. The noble Saxon of our forefathers, displaced at the Con¬ 
quest, by Latin as the language of books, and by Norman-French as 
that of polite life, became the badge of degradation and servitude. 
The English into which it gradually changed, by a mixture with Latin 
and French, had, in process of time, so far regained the ancient rights 
of the vernacular, as to be, at this period, the spoken language of the 
great body of the people. Yet in such contempt was it still held, that 
scarcely an attempt had been made to use it in composition, till Wick- 
liffe, with his great heart of love for the people, laid hold of it as the 
vehicle of religious instruction. He took the rude elements directly 
from the lips of the despised ploughmen, mechanics, and tradesmen. 
He gave it back to them in all its unadorned, picturesque simplicity, 
but fused by the action of his powerful mind into a fitting instrument 
of thought, and enriched with the noblest literature which the world 
has produced ; the utterances of inspired poets, prophets, and apos¬ 
tles, the inimitable histories, narratives, and portraitures, through 
which divine wisdom has told the sublime story of providence and re¬ 
demption. 

What seeds were those then sown in the virgin soil of the common 
English mind ! What musj have been the quickening of intellectual 
life, in a community where the Book of books furnished almost the 
only aliment of the hungry soul ! Were not the children eager to read 
for themselves those wondrous stories ? Did not the ear of age forget 
its deafness, to hear the glad tidings of a Saviour and a future rest ? 
Would not a new consciousness of worth steal into the soul of the rude 
clown, when he learned what God had done to redeem him ? The 
more deeply we enter into the circumstances and spirit of the times, 
the stronger will grow the conviction that this first English Bible must 


INFLUENCE OF WICKLIFFE’S VERSION. 57 

have been like an awakening breath from heaven, the beginning of 
days to the common people of England. 

As has been remarked before, no book before the invention of 
printing ever had such advantages for becoming widely known. 
Wickliffe, the great practical reformer, with his thorough knowledge 
of all classes of English society, had not urged through this gigantic 
task as a mere experiment. He had his eye on a definite, practicable 
result, the means for accomplishing which were in his own hands. 
Aside from the demand for the Scriptures, excited by his general influ¬ 
ence during a long public career, he had at command one of the most 
effective agencies of modern publication. The active, hardy, itinerant 
preachers whom he had sent out to proclaim, by word of mouth, glad 
tidings to the poor, who had threaded every part of England, and be¬ 
come intimately acquainted with the character and wants of its popu¬ 
lation, now formed a band of colporteurs for the written word. 
They knew in what far-off hamlets pious souls were counting the days 
to the return of their missionary, and pining for the bread of life ; 
what thinking merchants and tradesmen in the great towns, what hon¬ 
orable men and women among the country gentry were eager to search 
the Scriptures, whether these things were so. Several copyists, no 
doubt, had kept pace with the progress of the translation ; and as fast 
as a few chapters, or a book was completed, these faithful agents 
would make known the priceless treasure in the homes of the people. 
Many a touching scene might be imagined, of rustic groups by the 
wayside, in the church-yard, or around the peat fire at evening, listen¬ 
ing for the first time to the words of the Bible in their mother tongue. 
Then, how would the beautifully written manuscript be passed round, 
from hand to hand, to be admired and wondered at ; and not seldom 
to be wet with tears from eyes that beheld for the first time, in English 
characters, the name of Jesus ! Nor would the missionary be 
suffered to depart, before a copy, of at least some portion, had been 
obtained. If no professional copyist was to be found, hands all un¬ 
used to the labor of the pen would scrawl painfully a rude transcript 
of a Psalm, of the Ten Commandments, a few chapters of the Gos¬ 
pels, or of Paul’s epistles, to remain as a lamp of heavenly light, when 
the living preacher had departed. It is a fact of intensest interest and 
significance, that numerous fragments of this kind were subsequently 
found among the Lollards. True, a large majority of the middle and 
lower ranks must have depended for their knowledge of the holy 
oracles on the ear alone. But when the memory is little occupied, 
and the heart writes the lesson on its tablets, much of the very lan¬ 
guage of Scripture may even thus be handed down, unimpaired, 


53 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


through successive generations. The truth of this is abundantly veri¬ 
fied in the history of Wickliffe’s later followers, as sketched in the 
second part of this work. 

When first sent abroad, moreover, the version enjoyed the sunshine 
of royal favor, in the person of Anne of Bohemia, the accomplished 
wife of Richard II., who was herself a devoted student and advocate 
of the Scriptures. Though she was soon withdrawn by death, yet in 
the providence of God, nearly twenty years elapsed before its progress 
was materially checked by persecution. It needs no documents to 
assure us that during this period, copies must have been rapidly mul¬ 
tiplied and diffused far and wide over England. The hundred and 
seventy copies, more or less complete, which have come down to our 
own time, are the index of many times that number which perishetl by 
use, by accident, or by the flames of Romish bonfires. 

But we have more direct evidence ; the testimony of contemporane¬ 
ous opposers of vernacular translations. The language of Ivnyghton, 
a distinguished writer of the Romish Church, recognizes the firm hold 
it had secured of the public mind, but a short time after the death of 
the translator. “The Gospel,” says he, “which Christ committed 
to the clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might sweetly dis¬ 
pense it to the laity , according to the exigency of the times and the 
wants of men, this Master John Wickliffe has translated into the 
Anglic (not Angelic) * tongue ; thereby making it more open and 
common to the laity, and to women who can read, than formerly it 
was to the best instructed among the clergy. And thus the Gospel 
pearl is cast forth, and is trodden under foot of swine ; and what was 
once reverenced by clergy and laity is become, as it were, the common 
jest of both ; and the jewel of the clergy, their peculiar treasure, is 
made forever common to the laity.” 

The rapid spread among all classes of the laity, of Wickliffe’s senti¬ 
ments in regard to the Papacy, fully justified the apprehensions of the 
clergy. The House of Commons was so infected with the dangerous 
principles of religious liberty, as to render it a very uncomfortable in¬ 
strument to manage ; and even among the nobles a considerable num¬ 
ber took decided ground on the same side. The dreaded weapon of 
ridicule came freely into play in the conflict, and did its usual execu¬ 
tion. Pasquinades, satirizing the ignorance and vices of the clergy, 
were posted up at St. Paul’s, and other public places, and were soon 
in the mouths of the whole populace. 

* A taunt upon the despised vernacular, as too rude and uncouth for such a 
purpose. 


INFLUENCE OF WICKLIFFE’S VERSION. 


59 


Had the tide of popular feeling received no check, the emancipation 
of England from the Papal yoke might have been anticipated by more 
than a century. But the Reformation would probably have been to a 
fatal degree unsound and superficial. There was first' a work to be 
done in the nation’s heart. 

In 1395, during Richard’s absence for the conquest of Ireland, the 
aspect of public opinion became so alarming that the prelates dis¬ 
patched messengers entreating his return without delay. “ As soon,” 
says a contemporary popish historian, “ as he heard the report of the 
commissioners, being inspired by the Divine Spirit, he hastened back, 
thinking it more necessary to defend the Church than to conquer king¬ 
doms.” His stringent measures toward the offending nobles soon 
reduced them to submission ; many others, of course, followed in their 
wake, and the cause exchanged the prestige of success and distin¬ 
guished patronage for the humiliation of defeat. When, in 1399, 
Henry IV., son of the Duke of Lancaster, Wickliffe’s former friend, 
succeeded to the throne, the hopes of the party revived. But Henry’s 
title needed the support of the clergy, and the price of their aid was 
the sacrifice of the cause of which both his father and himself had 
once been advocates. His first act was to send a messenger to an 
ecclesiastical assembly, then in session at St. Paul’s, “ begging the 
prayers of the Church for the King and kingdom, and promising that 
he would protect the clergy in all their liberties and immunities, and 
assist them with all his power in exterminating heretics.” He kept 
his word but too faithfully. 

It was a bitter but wholesome disappointment. The political enthu¬ 
siasm, that mere transient reflection of the true light from worldly 
minds, soon died out under the cruel persecutions which followed ; 
but the religious principle grew strong in the good and honest hearts 
who loved the truth because it was of God. During the next quarter 
of a century, “ the flower of martyrdom,” of which Wickliffe had 
spoken, was won by a noble line of Christian heroes, representing 
widely separated classes of society. Thomas Badby, the tailor ; John 
Claydon, the farrier ; Thorpe and Sawtree, the learned clergymen ; 
Cobham, the mirror of chivalry and manly piety, stand side by side, 
as equal champions for the faith of Christ ; while a multitude endured 
trials of cruel mockings, and scourgings, and imprisonment in loath¬ 
some dungeons, whose names are lost on earth. 

Throughout this period, the books of Wickliffe, and especially his 
translation of the Bible, are recognized as the grand source of heresy. 
The statute of 1401, procured by Archbishop Arundel, made the 
possession of any of his writings punishable by death at the stake. In 



6o 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


1408, it was decreed by the clergy in convocation assembled, “ that 
no schoolmaster should hereafter mix religious instruction with the 
teaching of youth, nor permit discussion about the sacraments, nor 
the reading of the Scriptures in English ; that books of this sort, 
written by John Wickliffe, and others of his time, should be banished 
from schools, halls, and all places whatsoever ; that no man hereafter 
should translate any part of Scripture into English on his own 
authority ; and that all persons convicted of making or using such 
translations should be punished as favorers of error and heresy.” In 
1417, the right of sanctuary allowed to the highway robber and mur¬ 
derer, was denied by a formal act of parliament, to men whose only 
crime was that of reading the Scriptures in English. What better 
proof than these measures could be asked, of the wide diffusion and 
influence of Wickliffe’s Bible? Under the action of the statute last 
mentioned, so many were implicated in London and elsewhere, and so 
serious were the confiscations of property, that the King himself (Henry 
V.) was obliged to interpose, and hold the officers of the law in check 
by royal authority. 

During the political agitations of the reign of Henry VI., public at¬ 
tention was effectually diverted from religious controversy, and the 
Lollards gradually disappear from the page of history. A night of 
ignorance, priestly tyranny, superstition and social disorder, a night 
whose gross darkness was hardly equalled by any that had preceded 
it, settled down on England. But the followers of Wickliffe were not 
extinct, nor had the Book perished whence they drew their life. 
Driven from the higher classes, truth had taken refuge among the un¬ 
noticed poor, and in silence and obscurity was nurturing the influ¬ 
ences which were to ensure her triumph in the happier times to come. 
The light which Wickliffe had kindled, often smothered, then hidden 
from public view, but never for a moment extinguished, at length 
mingled its beams with the full day of the Reformation. 

But this ancient version has yet another claim on our regard. It 
furnished, for all time, the type and pattern of The English Bible. 
In the century and a half during which it was the well-spring of the 
religious life of England—that long, dark day, when persecution kept 
the flock of Christ fast by the source of strength and consolation—its 
homely, child-like, expressive phraseology had become too deeply hal¬ 
lowed in the English mind as the medium of inspiration, ever again to 
be dissevered from it. A comparison with the subsequent versions 
which have found favor with the common people, will show them to 
be, in this respect, all offsprings of this parent-stock. Improved in 
many important particulars, so as to reflect with greater exactness the 




INFLUENCE OF WICKLIFFE’S VERSION. 61 

sense of the inspired originals, they are yet substantially, in form and 
manner, but reproductions of that in which our unlettered forefathers 
first read the revelation of God. Nay, I think it will be the feeling of 
many readers, that, while they are thus superior in correctness and in 
adaptation to more cultivated periods ; yet, in graphic, nervous force, 
in a certain untamed vigor, and a raciness of flavor which belongs to 
the youth of language, the patriarchal version has never been quite 
equalled. It was, to use Lord Bacon’s beautiful illustration of a kin¬ 
dred point, “ the first crush of the grape." When, moreover, we re¬ 
mark how intelligible it remains to the present day, how much more 
near is its phraseology to our own language of common life than that 
even of Chaucer, we can hardly avoid the conclusion that it was this 
book, pre-eminently, which gave shape and fashion to our mother 
tongue, and by its continually increasing spread, gradually molded 
into permanent uniformity the language of the people. 

Thus, in a threefold sense, did England’s first Bible become the 
central point of English history. The tree which Wickliffe planted 
has clasped with its ever-lengthening roots the life of five centuries. 


CHAPTER XI. 


wickliffe’s influence abroad. 


But it was not in England alone that Wickliffe’s influence was felt, 
on the errors of the age. The religious interests of Bohemia lay near 
the heart of the enlightened and pious Queen Anne ; and under her 
auspices the Reformer’s writings had early been carried, in great 
numbers, into her native country. His opinions were received with 
favor by the reigning king and queen, became the subject of free dis¬ 
cussion in the University of Prague, and spread widely among the 
common people. In the year 1400, in accordance with his great prin¬ 
ciple, the Scriptures were translated into Bohemian, making the second 
vernacular translation of modern Europe.* In 1404, the celebrated 
John Huss became a convert to these views ; and from his ardent 
spirit the movement received an impulse which, within twenty-five 
years after the death of Wickliffe, had moved all Bohemia with his 
sentiments, and threatened an entire subversion of the Romish power. 
The importance of these events can only be rightly estimated, by tak¬ 
ing into the account the mental activity and force of character which 
distinguished the Bohemians as a people, and the high intelligence and 
liberality of the nobles. Prague was not only the most populous, 
wealthy, and splendid city in Germany, but the acknowledged centre 
of the arts and sciences. Defection from the Papacy, at this point, 
involved far more than the loss of Bohemia. A light kindled on this 
eminence must shine far and wide over the surrounding nations. 

In 1408 the Archbishop of Prague seized and committed to the 
flames some two hundred volumes of the English Reformer’s writings. 
These, belonged mostly to members of the University, and were, of 
course, but a small part of the number in the country, f In 1409, 
Pope Alexander V. issued a bull to the government of Bohemia, re¬ 
quiring the suppression, by the most stringent methods, of all teaching 
of Wickliffe’s doctrines. His successor, John XXIII., cited Huss to 
appear before him at Rome ; and this being declined, excommunicated 
him, and laid the city of Prague under an interdict. 


* This, though not noticed by Vaughan in his'Life of Wickliffe, is one of the 
most interesting events connected with his labors and influence, 
f Vaughan. 


j 

: i 


WICKLIFFE'S INFLUENCE ABROAD. 


63 


At this crisis, Jerome of Prague came forward to defend the perse¬ 
cuted reformer, and to sustain the cause for which he suffered. Je¬ 
rome had studied at Oxford, where, probably, he first imbibed 
Wickliffe’s sentiments ; and in Paris he became known as their advo¬ 
cate, in a public controversy with the celebrated Romish theologian, 
Gerson. On his return to Bohemia he was imprisoned in Vienna, as 
a favorer of Wickliffe’s doctrines ; but was released at the intercession 
of the University of Prague, where he was held in the highest esteem 
for his genius and learning. He now stood forth boldly, as the leader 
in the conflict, and took even higher ground against the doctrines and 
government of the Papal church than Huss himself. Opposition only 
fanned the rising flame ; and the continual conflict of opinion led all 
classes, more and more, to a study of the Holy Scriptures, as the only 
reliable standard of truth. 

Things were in this condition when the famous Council of Con¬ 
stance was assembled, in the city from which it takes its name. Its 
object was, in part, the termination of the scandalous quarrel of the 
three rival popes, which was fast undermining the credit of St. Peter’s 
chair ; in part, the suppression, by some adequate measures, of the 
alarming growth of Wickliffe’s sentiments in Christendom. This 
Council was one of the most imposing ever convoked by the Romish 
Church. It numbered among its members and attendants, a German 
Emperor, twenty princes, one hundred and forty counts, a pope, more 
than twenty cardinals, seven patriarchs, twenty archbishops, ninety- 
one bishops, six hundred other prelates, and about four thousand 
priests. Its deliberations extended from the year 1414 to 1418. 

The acts by which this great assembly is chiefly known to pos¬ 
terity are the deposition of three infallible popes, followed by the 
election of a fourth ; the burning of John Huss and Jerome at the 
stake, and the decrees against the writings of Wickliffe. Huss had 
been decoyed to Constance, by the promise of being allowed to defend 
his opinions before the assembled clergy of Christendom ; but, in vio¬ 
lation of a safe-conduct from the hand of the Emperor Sigismund, he 
was put to death. In July, 1415, Jerome having ventured into the 
vicinity in hope of aiding his beloved and revered brother, was like¬ 
wise seized, and after a long imprisonment, followed him to the stake. 
But the truth had taken too deep root in Bohemia to perish by such 
means. The assembled dignitaries of the Romish Church had beheld, 
with amazement, Bohemian nobles and citizens reasoning before them, 
with no less learning than boldness, from the word of God. A cause 
thus advocated has ceased to depend on leaders. 

John Wickliffe had the honor of being recognized by this august 


6 4 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


assembly as the source of all the influences which had thus turned 
the world upside down. Among its earliest acts, fifty-five articles 
from his writings, which had already been condemned in England, 
Rome, and Prague, now received the solemn ban of the Council ; and 
subsequently, it is said, two hundred and sixty more were condemned 
in like manner. His works of every kind, and wherever found, were 
adjudged to the flames. 

Not satisfied with these measures, the Council, before closing, passed 
a sentence on his dead body, directing that it should be disinterred, 
and burned to ashes, as an expression of the abhorrence in which his 
doctrines and his memory were held by Holy Church. The decree 
was executed in 1428, when Archbishop Chichely, Primate of England, 
himself went down to Lutterworth, attended by a large train of the 
English clergy, to superintend the ceremony. From beneath the 
humble chancel, where they had slept in peace more than forty years, 
the bones of the Reformer were dragged rudely forth to the light of 
day ; and being carried down the hill on which the church stood, to a 
little stream called the Swift, were there consumed by fire, and the 
ashes thrown into the river. 

The enemies of truth took this as a presage of the speedy and final 
destruction of Wickliffe’s influence. But they were false seers. 
“ The Swift,” says quaint old Fuller, “ conveyed his ashes into the 
Avon, Avon into the Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they to the 
main ocean. And thus they are the emblem of his doctrine, which 
now is dispersed all the world over.” In Bohemia, the progress of 
his opinions was only accelerated by the cruel and treacherous dealing 
of the Council ; and during the entire fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
this favored country exhibited a shining example of the power of Bible 
Christianity to call forth the energies, as well as to exalt the morals 
of a nation. Fourteen translations of the whole Bible, besides ten of 
the New Testament, which have come down to this day, bear witness 
to the zeal of her Christian scholars. She had her printed Bible fifty 
years before England. Education was common to her whole popula¬ 
tion, and the arts and sciences were brought to a remarkable perfec¬ 
tion. When in 1620, during the progress of the thirty years’ war, 
Bohemia lost her nationality, three-fourths of her population were 
Protestant ; and seventy thousand men, with nearly the whole nobility, 
the entire body of the Protestant clergy, scholars, and artists, and in 
general, the most cultivated part of the nation, went forth as volun¬ 
tary exiles, preferring rather to renounce their country than their re¬ 
ligion. The monks from Spain, Italy, and Southern Germany, who 
poured into the subjugated country, found it a toilsome labor to re- 


wickliffe’s influence abroad. 


65 


store the ancient reign of darkness. Every Bohemian book was con¬ 
demned as presumptively heretical. There were individuals who 
boasted of having burned sixty thousand manuscripts, the precious 
relics of her early popular and sacred literature. Such works as were 
saved from the flames were shut up in monasteries, in secure rooms 
guarded by iron grates, doors, locks, bolts, and chains, and often in¬ 
scribed with the warning title, Hell. A clearer exemplification of the 
influence and aim of the two religions could hardly be found in his¬ 
tory. 

It is easy to see what must have been the influence of this people, 
during their long period of prosperity,' and how essentially it must 
have contributed toward preparing the way for the great work of the 
sixteenth century. The Reformation of Huss flowed into that of Lu¬ 
ther ; and when the latter reached England, its waters mingled with 
that earlier stream whose sources we have traced in the personal 
labors of Wickliffe. 

The mind stands amazed over the view thus opened, of the mighty 
consequences to mankind flowing from the life of a single individual 
If anything could surprise us more, it would be that party spirit could 
have caused such services to humanity to be forgotten, and the very 
existence of the apostle of modern Christianity to become almost a 
myth in the land of his birth. But as certainly as truth is to triumph, 
and the last vestige of priestcraft to disappear before the light of the 
pure word of God, the name of John Wickliffe will brighten as the 
ages pass, and the beautiful eulogy of the martyrologist be accepted as 
no more than justice to his character and labors : “ This is out of all 
doubt, that at what time all the world was in most desperate and vile 
estate, and that the lamentable ignorance and darkness of God’s truth 
had overshadowed the whole earth, this man stepped out like a valiant 
champion ; unto whom may justly be applied, that is spoken in the 
book of Ecclesiasticus, of one Simon, the son of Onias : ‘ Even as 
the morning star being in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon being 
full in her course, and as the bright beams of the sun, so doth he shine 
and glister in the temple and Church of God.’ ” 


CHAPTER XII. 


RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF ENGLAND. 

A century and a half had now elapsed since Wickliffe gave Eng¬ 
land her first Bible. During this whole period the Church, backed 
by the State, had made it a. steady aim to root out the tendencies 
which he had implanted in the common English mind. Yet, at the 
beginning of the sixteenth century, we find them still existing in all 
their living energy among the Lollards. The “voluntary system” 
had proved adequate to the perpetuation of an order of devoted, 
working ministers, “ willing to endure all things for the elect’s sake 
men, who from pure love for souls, made a joyful sacrifice of worldly 
gain and ease, and went forth, at the hazard of their lives, to preach 
the Gospel to the poor. Many shires of England were acquainted 
with the toil-worn, weather-beaten forms of these humble apostles of 
Bible piety, and about the time of Henry VIII. ’s accession, numer¬ 
ous little congregations of “ Brethren in Christ ,” (so they called them¬ 
selves), were existing in different parts of the kingdom as the fruit of 
their labors. Being almost wholly from the lower classes, and taught 
by former persecutions to observe the greatest caution and secrecy, 
the timid flock had grown and multiplied undetected by their powerful 
foes. 

At this period they seem to have enjoyed a fresh access of spiritual 
life. Thomas Mann, one of their preachers, who died for heresy in 
1518, is reported in the bishop’s record of his trial as “confessing 
that he hath turned seven hundred people to his religion ; for which 
he thanketh God.” Such was their increase in zeal and numbers, 
that they could no longer escape observation. They were tracked to 
the lonely, unfrequented spots where they met undercover of night to 
worship God ; neighbor was made spy on neighbor ; husbands and 
wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, were beguiled or 
forced to bear witness against each other. The Lollards Tower again 
echoed with the clanking of chains ; the rack and the stake once more 
claimed their victims. But those dark days of tears and blood have 
left a precious memorial for after times, furnished by the very hands 
which were striving to blot ‘ this pestilent sect ’ from the face of the 
earth. From the registers of the bishops, before whom those accused 



RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF ENGLAND. 


6 ; 


of heresy were tried, has been gathered a long list of lowly martyrs 
and confessors who, but for these cruel persecutors, would never have 
been heard of out of the plebeian sphere in which they were born. 
Nor do we need any better testimony than is furnished by these 
records, to the purity both of their doctrines and their lives. A sim¬ 
ple, blameless people, full of love and good works, there was nothing 
to be found against them “ save in the matter of the law of their God.” 

What strikes one w T ith most surprise, in these humble Christians, is 
the identity of their views at once with those of Wickliffe and his im¬ 
mediate followers, and with those afterward known as the distinguish¬ 
ing traits of Protestantism. But the solution is easy. It was because 
they all drew from one and the same source, the inspired word of 
God. Through their whole history, the living preacher and the writ¬ 
ten Scripture had gone hand in hand. There is abundant evidence, 
not only that Wickliffe’s version was still preserved among them, but 
that they had numerous copies of it in whole or in part, which were 
diligently read by the families of common laborers and mechanics. 

One of the most common charges against the Lollards of this period, 
was the possession of some portion of Wickliffe’s Bible, and the ability 
to read it, or to repeat from it by heart. Among those “ troubled” 
as suspected heretics, between the years 1509 and 1517, five persons 
were charged with having met together secretly to read “ certain chap¬ 
ters of the Evangelists in English, containing in them,”—such was 
the sentence of the learned bishops—“ divers erroneous and damnable 
opinions and conclusions of heresy . ” One Christopher Shoomaker, 
burned at Newbury, was accused of having gone to the house of John 
Say, and “ read to him out of a book, the words which Christ spake 
to his disciples.” In 1519 seven martyrs were burned in one fire at 
Coventry, “ for having taught their children and servants the Lord’s 
Prayer and Ten Commandments in English.” The register of Long- 
land, Bishop of Lincoln, for the single year 1521, contains a list of 
some hundred names , most of whom were accused for reading or repeat¬ 
ing portions of the Scriptures in the English language. Jenkin Butler 
accused his own brother of reading to him a certain book of Scripture, 
and persuading him to hearken to the same. John Barrett, goldsmith 
of London, was “ troubled” for having recited to his wife and maid 
the Epistle of James without book. John Thatcher was accused of 
teaching Alice Brown this saying of Jesus : * Blessed are they that 
hear the word of God and keep it. ’ Thomas Philip and Lawrence 
Taylor were cited for reading the Epistle to the Romans and the first 
chapter of Luke in English. “ Cuthbert, Bishop of London, sitting 
judicially in the chapel within his palace, at London, ministered in 


68 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


word against John Pykas, ” who confessed “ that about five years last 
past, at a certain time his mother, then dwelling at Bury, sent for 
him, and moved him that he should not believe in the sacraments of 
the Church, for that was not the right way. And then she delivered 
to him one book of Paul’s Epistles, in English (manuscript) ; and bid 
him live after the manner and way of said Epistles and Gospels, and 
not after the way the Church doth teach.’ John Tyball was accused 
before this same bishop, of having had 4 certain of Paul’s Epistles 
after the old translation.’ In 1529, John Tukesbury, a respectable 
citizen and leather merchant, of the city of London, confessed to hav¬ 
ing in his possession ‘ a manuscript copy of the Bible, and that he had 
been studying in the Holy Scriptures from the year 1512.’ 

Their supply of Bibles was indeed scanty, compared with that en¬ 
joyed since the introduction of the press ; but the lack was made up 
by an earnestness which could overcome all obstacles. We must not 
judge of these awakened minds and hearts by the general standard of 
their class at the time. Was only a single copy owned in a neighbor¬ 
hood, these hard-working laborers and mechanics would be found 
together, after a weary day of toil, alternately reading and listening to 
the words of life ; and so sweet was the refreshment to their spirits, 
that sometimes the morning light surprised them with its call to a 
new day of labor, ere they had thought of sleep. Their highest aim 
was to become possessors of some portion of the sacred volume. One 
man among them is mentioned, as having given a load of hay for a 
few chapters of one of Paul’s Epistles. Some devoted the savings of 
years to this object. They have even been known to give a sum equal 
to eight or ten pounds of our time, for one of those little tracts which 
Wickliffe wrote so long before, for the instruction and comfort of the 
pious poor. 

But they were not merely superior to their class. In the intelligence 
of their belief, in their sense of the true worth and destiny of man, 
in their thirst for knowledge, as well as in purity of manners and ardor 
of piety, they were, as a body, in advance of the highest ranks both 
of clergy and laity. “To see,” says their faithful and affectionate 
historian Fox, “ their travails, their earnest seeking, their ardent zeal, 
their reading, their watching, their sweet assemblies, their love and 
concord, their godly living, their faithfully marrying with the faithful, 
may make us now, in these our days of free profession, to blush for 
shame.” That many, who bore the name of Lollards, failed in the 
hour of fiery trial and abjured their faith, merely proves that the influ¬ 
ence of their views extended far beyond the bounds of the true be¬ 
lievers. As a people, they were the recognized advocates, in a period 


RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF ENGLAND. 


69 

of unsurpassed darkness and slavery to priestcraft, of the freedom of 
the human mind, of the rights of conscience, and of the supreme 
authority of the Holy Scriptures. To their influence is doubtless to 
be assigned the first place, among the causes which led to the English 
Reformation. 

Let us turn now for a moment to the preparation going on in other 
classes, for the new epoch which was soon to dawn. 

In all her external relations, England was still the most obedient 
vassal of Rome. Henry VIII. ,by training a bigoted adherent of the 
Church, vied with the “ most Christian monarchs” of former times, 
in humbling his kingdom before the papal footstool. A golden rose, 
touched by the apostolic finger with holy chrism, was, in his esteem, 
a full equivalent for the rich English benefices which his Holiness 
disposed of unquestioned among his insatiable Italians. At no time 
had the clergy, as a body, been more ignorant, more corrupt, or more 
powerful, or the great mass of the people more abject slaves of super¬ 
stition. 

Still the new day which had dawned on continental Europe could 
not be wholly shut out. Even before Luther had commenced his 
reformatory labors, a more liberal style of learning had been intro¬ 
duced into the English Universities, through the labors of Erasmus 
and a few native scholars of like spirit. Greek professorships had 
been established, the New Testament in the original was studied by a 
considerable number, and public lectures were read on some portions 
of it. Hebrew, also, received some attention. These innovations 
were received by the great body of the clergy with anything but favor. 
With the quick instinct of birds of night, they discerned, far off, the 
hated approach of day. Dr. John Collet, who nobly led the way in 
the new path, by his lectures on Paul’s Epistles (delivered at Oxford 
so early as 1497, “ without fee or reward”), was interrupted by a 
prosecution for heresy, instituted by the Bishop of London, and 
escaped only through the personal kindness of Archbishop Warham, 
who dismissed the case without trial. When, in 1516, the Greek Tes¬ 
tament of Erasmus made its appearance, a terrible hue and cry arose 
among the clergy. Priests used their influence at the confessional to 
warn young students against it, and one college at Cambridge was 
found so. conservative as to forbid the dangerous book to be brought 
within its walls. Standish, afterward Bishop of Asaph,* conjured 
the king, on his knees, to put down Erasmus. The monks made them- 

* Abbreviated, Ep. a St. As. (Episcopus a Sane to Asino, as put by Erasmus in 
his Epistles). 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


70 

selves especially conspicuous by the zeal of their opposition, declaring 
from the pulpit that ‘ ‘ there was now a new language invented, called 
Greek, of which people should beware as the source of all heresies ; 
that in this language had come forth a book, called the New Testa¬ 
ment, which was now in everybody’s hands, and was full of thorns 
and briars ; that there was also another language started up which 
they called Hebrew, and that they who learned it were turned Jews.” 

“Remember ye not, ” says Tyndale in 1531; “how within this 
thirty years, and far less, and yet dureth to this day, the old barking 
curs, Dun’s disciples, and the like draff, called Scottists, the children 
of darkness, raged in every pulpit against Greek, Latin, and Hebrew ; 
and what sorrow the schoolmasters that taught the true Latin tongue 
had with them ? Some beating the pulpit with their fists for madness, 
and roaring out with open and foaming mouth, that if there were but 
one Terence and Virgil in the world, and that same in their sleeves, 
and a fire before them, they would burn them therein, though it should 
cost their lives. ” 

But the spirit of the age was too strong to be thus repressed. 
Henry VIII. was himself ambitious to be known as a scholar and 
patron of learning ; and he not only encouraged classical study, but, 
in 1519, commanded by a royal mandate, that the study of the Scrip¬ 
tures in the original languages should henceforth constitute a regular 
branch of academic instruction at Oxford. His minister, Cardinal 
Wolsey, whose far-sighted intellect perceived in the new agencies at 
work in the age, a power which might perhaps be controlled, but could 
never be destroyed, threw himself into the vanguard of the cause of 
liberal learning. Cardinal’s College, established by him at Oxford, 
was a magnificent project for converting progress itself int^o a barrier 
against progress ; for raising up a clergy qualified by rigid intellectual 
discipline and eminent scholarship, to snatch from the reformers the 
leadership of the awakening age. That college, he resolved, should 
be “ the most glorious in the universe.” To furnish it with adequate 
endowments he ejected, by his authority as Papal Legate, the inmates 
of forty-one priories and nunneries, and devoted their riches to this 
object, sending forth their inmates to seek a home in other establish¬ 
ments. The most distinguished teachers were called in to add lustre 
to the new foundation, and its Fellows were the picked men of both 
universities. It was wisely planned. But the Cardinal, with all his 
sagacity, had not taken into the reckoning that the men thus trained 
might be the first to desert the cause he sought to uphold. Cardinal 
College rose into sudden eminence as a school of liberal learning, and 
in the same proportion became a nursery of the new opinions. Its ac- 




RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF ENGLAND. 


71 


complished youth,, their minds emancipated by enlarged enquiry, and 
their hearts instructed by the Scriptures in that liberty wherewith 
Christ makes free, devoted themselves with generous ardor to the 
cause of truth and spiritual freedom. 

Meanwhile, the multiplication of books through the press, by pro¬ 
moting general intelligence, had increased the disaffection of all 
classes toward the Romish clergy. Voices were heard to and from 
the people, in numerous little treatises, exposing the errors and vices 
of the Church. The thunder of Luther’s tones then came reverberat¬ 
ing over the water ; and, in spite of the vigilance of the clergy, trans¬ 
lations of his writings were extensively circulated in England. 

Thus, long before the quarrel of Henry with the Pope led to an 
external separation from Rome, the way had been preparing for a 
reform far more thorough and comprehensive ; a reform based on 
radical changes in the opinions and convictions of his subjects. To 
that true reform he was no less an enemy than the Pope himself ; 
and it worked its way against the whole force of his iron will. Its 
first marked development the event which inaugurated the age of 
Bible Translation in England, will form the subject of the next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


tyndale’s new testament. 

After the view just given of the influences at work in England, it 
can be no matter of surprise, to find the design of a new translation 
of the Scriptures already ripened in the bosom of an English scholar, 
years before Luther began the publication of the Bible in German. 
That scholar was William Tyndale. •* 

Tyndale was born about the year 1484, and at a very early age was 
sent to Oxford, which was one of the most celebrated schools of 
learning then existing. Here he soon attained high rank, and was 
particularly distinguished for his knowledge of the tongues. But 
though a proficient in classical literature, his most diligent study was 
given to the Greek New Testament, in which, also, he was accus¬ 
tomed to read to his fellow students. There is even strong reason 
for believing that, while still at the University and before he had 
reached his twentieth year, the purpose of translating the Scriptures 
was already working in his mind. An autograph collection in the 
hands of one of his biographers,* of translations made by him of 
select portions of the New Testament, shows in its ornamental, 
missal-like headings and borders, the initials W. T., and the date 
1502, several times repeated. To the latter are prefixed, in one 
instance, the significant words “ Time Trieth as if the youthful 
translator even then had it in view to submit his labors to the test of 
publication. It is a fact no less remarkable than interesting, that 
these early attempts were transferred, for the most part verbatim, into 
his complete New Testament ; and that many passages have come 
down through the successive revisions, unaltered, into our common 
version ! Thus the bent of his mind, from its first known develop¬ 
ment, marks him out as a man of earnest purpose, who already com¬ 
prehends what is his work and calling in the age. 

Still, however, he was a member of the Romish Church, and had 
probably thought of nothing beyond a reformation in the existing 
ecclesiastical institutions. In 1502, the date already mentioned, he 

* Offor’s Memoir prefixed to Tyndale’s New Testament. London, 1836. 






tyndale’s new testament. 


73 


was ordained a priest, and in 1508 became a friar in the monastery 
at Greenwich. We are not informed of the circumstances which 
induced him to withdraw from this relation ; but in 1522 he had 
returned to his native Gloucestershire, and was filling the office of 
private tutor and chaplain in a family of rank. While here, he made 
no secret of his reformatory sentiments, which soon became well 
known in the surrounding region. The hospitable mansion of his 
patron was a favorite resort of the prelates and clergy of the neigh¬ 
borhood, and frequent discussions arose at table in respect to the 
doctrines and measures of Luther, which were now making much noise 
in England. The dogmatism and deplorable ignorance exhibited 
by the clerical visitors on these occasions, often drew from the mod¬ 
est tutor a spirited defence of the Reformer, and an earnest recom¬ 
mendation to test his views by the New Testament. “ He spared 
not,” says Foxe, “ to show them simply and plainly his judgment ; 
and when they at any time did vary from his opinions, he would show 
them in the hook , and lay before them the manifest places of Scripture , to 
confute their errors and confirm his sayings.” In these controversies 
the dignitaries were so uniformly mortified by defeat, that they grad¬ 
ually ceased their visits; “preferring,” as Fuller remarks, “the 
loss of Squire Welch’s good cheer, to the sour sauce of Master Tyn¬ 
dale’s company.” 

But if they could not reason, they could persecute ; and their ill 
will soon exhibited itself in the citation of Tyndale before the chan¬ 
cellor of the diocese, on a charge of heresy. There was quite a rally 
of the clergy to witness his humiliation. In his own words, “ All the 
priests of the country were present the same day.” But under some 
influence not now apparent, the Chancellor, after “ threatening him 
grievously, and reviling and rating him as though he had been a dog,” 
allowed him to depart without punishment. Some of his friends 
counselled a prudent concealment of his views in future ; but “ the 
fire in his bones” refused to be shut up. A Popish clergyman soon 
after remarked to Tyndale, in reply to an earnest plea for a vernacu¬ 
lar Bible : “ We had better be without God’s laws than the Pope’s !” 
“ I defy the Pope and all his laws,” cried the indignant reformer ; 
“ and if God spare my life , ere many years I will eause a boy that dnv- 
eth the plough to know more of the Scriptures than you do /” A pledge 
which he nobly redeemed at the price of exile, poverty, a life of toil 
and persecution, and finally of a martyr s death. 

It is interesting to remark how firmly, at this period, the thought 
had fixed itself in Tyndale’s mind, that the translation of the Scrip¬ 
tures out of the original tongues was emphatically the work demanded 


74 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


by the wants of the age. He thus explains the motives which moved 
him to put his hand to the task : 

“ A thousand books had they lever to be put forth against their 
abominable doings and doctrines, than that the Scripture should 
come to light. For as long as they may keep that down, they will so 
darken the right way with their mist of sophistry, and so tangle them 
that either rebuke or despise their abominations, with arguments of 
philosophy, and with worldly similitudes and apparent reasons of 
natural wisdom ; and with wresting the Scriptures unto their own 
purpose, clean contrary unto the process, order and meaning of the 
text ; and so delude them, expounding it in many senses before the 
unlearned lay people (when it hath but one plain, literal sense, whose 
light the owls cannot abide), that though thou feel in thine heart, and 
art sure, how that all is false that they say, yet couldst thou not solve 
their subtle riddles. 

“ Which thing only moved me to translate the New Testament. 
Because I perceived by experience, how that it was impossible to 
establish the lay people in any truth, except the Scriptures were plainly 
laid before their eyes in their mother tongue. ’ * 

Convinced that the prosecution of his design was impracticable 
where he then was, and fearing, moreover, to jeopardize the family of 
his kind patrons by remaining under their roof, Tyndale now 
resolved to seek another home. The plan he formed in this exigency 
strikingly illustrates his simplicity of character, and his ignorance of 
the state of things in “ high places.” The opposition from which he 
had suffered he ascribed to the peculiar ignorance and stupidity of 
the Gloucestershire clergy. 

“ When,” says he, “ I was so turmoiled in the country where I was, 

that I could no longer dwell there,.I thiswise 

thought in myself : this I suffer, because the priests of the country be 
unlearned, as God knoweth they are a full ignorant sort, which have 
seen no more Latin than they read in their Portesses, and Missals, 
which yet many of them can scarcely read. And therefore, because 
they are thus unlearned, thought 1, when they come together to the 
ale-house, which is their preaching place, they affirm that my sayings 
are heresy.” 

From the enlightened clergy of the metropolis he expected very 
different treatment. He fixed his eyes on Tunstal, Bishop of Lon¬ 
don, whom Erasmus, in his Annotations on the New Testament, had 
proclaimed a paragon of learning and liberality, as the man under 
whose countenance he was to execute, in safety and quiet, and with 
all such aids as he might need, the beneficent task of giving the 


tyndale’s new testament. 


75 


Bible to England. “I thought,” says he, ” if I might come into 
this man’s service, I were happy. For even in the Bishop of Lon¬ 
don’s house, I intended to have done it.” 

Bidding farewell to his pleasant home in Little Sodbury Manor, 
1 yndale now turned his steps toward London, provided with a letter 
from his patron to Sir Harry Guildford, the King’s Comptroller. 
I he story of his disappointment must be given in his own words : 

” And so,” he says, “ I gat me to London, and through the 
acquaintance of my master, came to Sir Harry Guildford, the King’s 
Grace’s Comptroller, and brought him an oration of Isocrates, which 
I had translated out of Greek into English, to speak unto my Lord of 
London for me. This he also did, as he showed me, and willed me 
to write an epistle to my lord, and to go to him myself, which I also 
did, and delivered my epistle to a servant of his own, one William 
Hebilthwayte, a man of mine old acquaintance. But God, which 
knoweth that which is within hypocrites, saw that I was beguiled, and 
that that counsel was not the next way to my purpose. And there¬ 
fore he gat me no favor in my lord’s sight. Whereupon my lord 
answered me—‘ his house was full, he had more than he could well 
find, and advised me to seek in London, where,’ he said, ‘ I could 
not lack a service.’ ” 

The historical novelist might go far, without finding richer mate¬ 
rials for character-painting than are furnished by this little narrative. 
The guileless country scholar, his head teeming with classical and 
sacred lore, and his heart burning with a great thought of beneficence 
to his country—with his letter from the country baronet, and his ora¬ 
tion of Isocrates for credentials—and the proud, worldly church digni¬ 
tary, whose friendship and protection he came to solicit, would make 
an exquisite contrast. To the Bishop of London the poor, unknown 
clerk is a very different personage from the celebrated Erasmus, the 
protege of popes and princes ; and Tyndale is shown out of the 
stately episcopal palace, with the kind advice to seek his fortune else¬ 
where. “ Truly,” thus muses the disappointed scholar, “ it was all 
in the tongue of Erasmus, which maketh of little gnats great ele¬ 
phants, and lifteth up above the stars whoever giveth him a little 
exhibition !”—There came a time, and not long after, when Bishop 
Tunstal found this same William Tyndale a man of far more account, 
so far as the interests of the Romish hierarchy were concerned, than 
the great Erasmus. 

Nearly a year was consumed in vain efforts to secure a situation 
favorable to the accomplishment of his design. Evidently there was 
something in his deportment and conversation which did not com- 


;6 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


mend him to the church dignitaries of the capital. The last six 
months, he found a home in the hospitable abode of Humphrey Mon¬ 
mouth, a wealthy citizen, afterward an Alderman of London. It was, 
however, far from being an idle or unprofitable year. He preached, 
it would seem, regularly at St. Dunstan’s church, Fleet Street, on the 
Sabbath, and was as indefatigable a student as ever. But the most 
valuable lessons of the year were obtained from the study, for which 
the metropolis furnished such rich advantages, of the working of the 
existing Church system, its influence on the character of the clergy, 
and through them, upon the moral condition of the kingdom, and the 
general interests of Christendom. He now saw that a plan for 
enlightening the people, like that which he had formed, was in contra¬ 
vention of the first principle of their policy, that the power of the 
clergy rests on the ignorance of the masses. Before the close of the 
year he had relinquished all idea of attempting its execution in Eng¬ 
land. 

“ And so,” he says, “ I abode in London almost a year, and 
marked the course of the world, and heard our preachers, how they 
boasted themselves and their high authority ; and beheld the pomp of 
our prelates, and how busy they were, as they yet use, to set peace 
and unity in the world ; though it be not possible for them that walk 
in darkness to continue long in peace (for they cannot but either 
stumble, or dash themselves at one thing or another, that shall clean 
disquiet them altogether), and saw things of which I defer to speak at 
this time ; and understood at the last, not only that there was no 
room in my Lord of London’s palace to translate the New Testament, 
but also that there was no place to do it in all England, as experience 
doth now openly declare.” 

Accordingly, late in the year 1523,* being furnished by his noble 
friend, Monmouth, with the sum of ten pounds (equal to one hun¬ 
dred and fifty of the present time, or nearly seven hundred dollars), 
Tyndale bade a final adieu to his native land, and embarked for Ham¬ 
burgh. In this city he remained between one and two years, dili¬ 
gently improving the quiet and security here afforded for the prosecu¬ 
tion of his translation. 

Having nearly or quite completed it, he drew on Monmouth for an 
additional ten pounds, contributed by other English friends, which he 
had left with him for safe-keeping, and repaired to Cologne for the 

* In the statement of dates and places, the authority of Anderson (Annals of 
the English Bible, London, 1845) is, for the most part, followed in this division 
of the work. 


tyndale’s new testament. 


77 


purpose of printing his manuscript at one of its celebrated presses. 
His arrangements were made with the greatest secrecy, for Cologne 
was far from being favorably to the sentiments of the Reformation. 

One interesting fact should not be omitted in this connection. The 
English merchants, residing for purposes of trade in the commercial 
cities of Germany, seem, as a general thing, to have been deeply im¬ 
bued with Protestant principles. Many of them became the steady 
friends and protectors of Tyndale, and entered with warm zeal into 
his design of giving the Bible to their common country. They aided 
him with money ; their ships were at his service for the conveyance of 
his precious offering into England, concealed in boxes and bales of 
merchandise. Of like spirit must have been their partners in the 
English ports, to whom it was consigned. Thus we have a glimpse 
into a state of opinion and feeling, in a most influential class of Eng¬ 
lish society, which might well excite the utmost jealousy and vigilance 
on the part of the churchmen. Such friends Tyndale found at Co¬ 
logne ; and his work was passing through the press under happy aus¬ 
pices, when an exigency arose, beyond their power to meet, which 
drove Tyndale hastily from the city. 

THE BIBLE-HATER 

Just at this critical moment, when the salvation of England seemed 
to hang on the successful completion of the undertaking, there arrived 
in Cologne one of the most busy and malignant enemies of the truth 
that the world has seen. The especial distinction of John Cochlaeus 
was his intense hatred to vernacular translations of the Bible, in 
which he is said to have surpassed all his contemporaries. The rancor 
which characterized his numerous writings against German reformers 
and his unceasing efforts, by word and deed, to counteract their influ¬ 
ence, had so offended the Protestant feeling of Frankfort, where he 
formerly resided, that he was obliged to flee from that city. The 
same thing having been repeated at Mentz, he took refuge at Cologne 
at the very time when his presence was, seemingly, most disastrous to 
the cause of truth. Just then he was exceedingly anxious to bring out 
the works of Rupert, an ancient abbot of Deutz, who was claimed by 
both parties in the great controversy ; but he found it difficult to con¬ 
vince any of the Cologne printers that the enterprise would pay. 
After many unsuccessful attempts, Peter Quintel, the very printer 
employed by Tyndale, was persuaded to make the trial ; and thus the 
best of opportunities for ferreting out the important secret was fur¬ 
nished to the man who, of all others, would be likely to make the 
worst use of it. 


78 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


For a person of his rank, and an ecclesiastic, Cochlseus seems to 
have been on terms of very jovial fellowship with the printers. The 
manner in which he improved the intimacy is most fitly related in his 
own words. 

“ Having thus become more intimate and familiar with the Cologne 
printers, he sometimes heard them boast, confidently, when in their 
cups, that, whether the King and Cardinal of England would or 
would not, all England would, in a short time, be Lutheran. He 
heard, also, that there were two Englishmen lurking there, learned, 
skillful in languages, and fluent, whom, however, he could never see 
or converse with. Calling, therefore, certain printers into his lodg¬ 
ing, after they were heated with wine , one of them in more private dis¬ 
course, discovered to him the secret by which England was to be 
drawn over to the side of Luther, namely, ‘ That three thousand 
copies of the Lutheran New Testament, translated into the English 
language, were in press, and already were advanced as far as the let¬ 
ter K, in or dine quatcrnionum. That the expenses were fully supplied 
by English merchants, who were secretly to convey the work when 
printed, and disperse it widely through all England, before the King 
or the Cardinal would discover or prevent it.’ ” 

Having considered with himself “ the magnitude of the grievous 
danger,” Cochlseus repaired, next day, to the house of Hermann 
Rincke, a distinguished patrician of Cologne, who had held many 
high offices at court, was familiar both with the Emperor and with 
the King of England, and had great influence in the city government, 
and to him disclosed the whole affair. Herr Rincke was not the man 
to let slip an opportunity for laying a king under obligation. Accord¬ 
ingly, after satisfying himself by personal investigation at the printing 
house that Cochlseus was not mistaken, he laid the matter before the 
city Senate, and made such a representation of the case, that they 
issued an order interdicting the printer from proceeding farther in 
that work. Tyndale did not wait for the second blow. Hastily 
gathering up his manuscripts, and the sheets as far as printed, he fled 
with his assistant, George Roye, up the Rhine to Worms. This 
place, being fully pervaded by the doctrines of Luther, offered a far 
more secure retreat than Cologne, and here, accordingly, he remained 
till the year 1527. 

Arrived at Worms, he was personally safe, and might hope to com¬ 
plete his work without interruption. But a new difficulty lay in his 
way. The New Testament which he had commenced printing was in 
quarto form, with explanatory notes and glosses, and a long Prologue 
at the beginning. All this had become known to his enemies, who 


tyndale’s new testament. 


7 9 


would, of course, furnish such a description of the volume to the 
authorities in England as would enable them to seize all copies the 
instant they arrived. Tyndale decided at once upon his course. 
Laying aside his quarto for the present, he had an edition of the text 
merely struck off in octavo form, in which, for the Prologue, he sub¬ 
stituted an Epistle to the Reader, at the end, thus effacing, so far as 
possible, every feature by which the book might be identified. This 
he probably intended should precede the quarto, by an interval suffi¬ 
ciently long to allow the alarm excited by Cochlseus to die away. 
But, through some circumstances, now unknown, its transmission to 
England was delayed till the quarto also had been completed, and 
both editions arrived very nearly at the same time, toward the close of 
December, 1525. The labor was not, indeed, fruitless ; for the little 
octavo had been quietly making its way through the country, nearly 
three quarters of a year before its existence was suspected. The 
quarto, on the contrary, was discovered scarcely a month after its 
arrival. The circumstances of its detection furnish a lively picture of 
the state of the times. 

THE SECRET SEARCH. 

In the year 1523, Symon Fyshe, a lawyer of Gray’s Inn, London, 
having taken part in a privately acted play which reflected severely on 
Cardinal Wolsey, was that same night betrayed, and obliged to flee 
from his own house, and at length from England. While still in exile, 
probably in the year 1524, he composed a tract addressed ‘ to the 
King our Sovereign Lord,’ entitled ‘ The Supplication of Beggars,’ 
which set forth, in a bold and spirited manner, the danger to the 
nation and the throne from the grasping avarice of the clergy. In 
this, he averred, was the true ground of their opposition to the Bible 
for the people. “ This is the great scab why they will not let the New 
Testanient go abroad in your mother-tongue , lest men should espy that 
they, by their cloaked hypocrisy, do translate, thus fast, your kingdom 
into their hands.”—Copies of this stirring appeal were soon secretly 
circulating in England, and produced wherever read a deep impres¬ 
sion. On Candlemas day, February 2, 1526, advantage was taken of 
a royal procession to Westminster, to scatter large numbers in the 
streets, thus distributing it far and wide, among all classes of people. 

How slight a cause will alarm the abettor of error ! The great 
Cardinal, clothed with almost regal and pontifical power, the man 
who had been truly called the ‘ king of his king,’ trembled at these few 
pages of a friendless, banished man. It was not without reason ; for 
they had in them the omnipotence of truth ! So imminent seemed to 



8o 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


him the danger, that on the very next day, orders were issued by his 
authority for a “ secret search ” after Lutheran books,* to be made 
simultaneously in London, and both the Universities. Three years 
before, a similar measure had been resolved on, as a check to the 
progress of reform, and had then obtained the king’s full concur¬ 
rence. Without waiting for any further expression of the royal will, 
Wolsey now proceeded to carry out this act into instant execution. 
Such were the circumstances which led to the discovery, thus early, 
of the English New Testament. 

Suspicion having fastened particularly on one Thomas Garrett, 
curate of All-Hallows Church, as a receiver and distributor of prohib¬ 
ited books, he was searched for through all London. It was found, 
however, that he had gone to Oxford, with a quantity of such books, 
for the purpose of there making sale of them “ to such as he knew to 
be lovers of the Gospel.” Thither he was pursued, in the determina¬ 
tion, says Foxe, “ to apprehend and imprison him, and to burn all 
and every his foresaid books, and himself too, if they could, so burn¬ 
ing hot was their zeal.” But having received a friendly warning 6f 
his danger, he fled on the morning of the 7th, and concealed himself. 
The impression of that day of terror is affectingly given in the words 
of Anthony Dalaber, one of the pious Oxford students, who was a 
devoted friend, and, soon after, a fellow-sufferer, of Garrett. 

“ When he was gone down from my chamber, I straightway did shut 
my chamber door, and went into my study, and took the New Testa¬ 
ment in my hands, kneeled down on my knees, and with many a deep 
sigh and salt tear, I did with much deliberation read over the* tenth 
chapter of Matthew’s Gospel ; and when I had so done, with fervent 
prayers I did commit unto God our dearly beloved brother Garrett, 
earnestly beseeching him in and for Jesus Christ’s sake, his only be¬ 
gotten Son, our Lord, that he would vouchsafe not only safely to con¬ 
duct and keep our said dear brother from the hands of all his ene¬ 
mies, but also that he would endue his tender and lately born little 
flock in Oxford with heavenly strength by his Holy Spirit, that they 
might be able thereby valiantly to withstand, to his glory, all their 
fierce enemies, and might also quietly, to their own salvation, with all 
godly patience, bear Christ’s heavy cross ; which I now saw was pres¬ 
ently to be laid on their young and tender backs, unable to bear so 

* Lutheran was now the term of reproach, as Lollard had been during the pre¬ 
ceding century. Under this name were included not only the translated works 
of the German reformers, but all English books, both old and recent, which con¬ 
tained sentiments similar to theirs, Tyndale’s original writings and his New 
Testament among the number. 


tyndale’s new testament. 


8 i 


great a burden without the great help of his Holy Spirit. This done 
I laid aside my book safe.” 

Many such scenes, no doubt, passed that night in solitary rooms at 
Oxford, when the English New Testament of Tyndalewas consecrated 
to its holy work by the tears and prayers of humble and trembling 
hearts. On the following Friday, poor Garrett fell into the hands of 
his enemies. After being compelled, in company with Dalaber and 
several other convicted students, to march in procession from St. 
Mary’s to Cardinal College, where each of them cast one of the con¬ 
demned books into a large bonfire kindled for the purpose, the two 
friends were imprisoned at Osney Isle till near the close of the year, 
when Garrett was brought before Tunstal for the trial which resulted 
in his martyrdom. 

But these were not the only victims at Oxford. Cardinal College, 
that darling of Wolsey’s heart, was found to be deeply infected with 
the dreaded poison. The books detected under the flooring of its 
rooms and in other secret places, too plainly betrayed the humiliating 
fact. The Cardinal’s anger was in proportion to his disappointment. 
Of the suspected, some escaped to their friends ; but ten or more 
members of this model college, with about an equal number from the 
others, were apprehended, and immured in a deep cellar under Car¬ 
dinal College, used as a repository of salt fish. Three of them sunk 
within a w'eek under the effects of a putrid atmosphere and unwhole¬ 
some food, and a fourth soon followed. The rest, after lying from 
March to August in this loathsome dungeon, with nothing to subsist 
on but the fish with which it was stored, were made prisoners at large 
by Wolsey. He probably thought that by this time the lads were well 
cured of heresy. 

Among the number thus released was John Frith, then about 
twenty-two years of age, a young man of rare genius and acquirements, 
and of fervent piety. He soon escaped to the continent ; and having 
joined, his spiritual father and best beloved friend, Tyndale, became 
his assistant in translating the Bible. 

We must now turn to the sister university. Cambridge lay under 
still stronger suspicion of heresy than Oxford, and with good reason. 
Here, several years before, Thomas Bilney had been converted by the 
study of Erasmus’ Greek Testament ; and, through his labors, Hugh 
Latimer, and Robert Barnes, Prior of the Monastery of Augustin 
Friars at Cambridge, had also learned the way of life. From them a 
powerful evangelical influence had spread into the various colleges of 
the university, so that even as early as 1523 certain bishops had urged 
the importance of a visitation, for the purpose of trying those who 


82 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


were infected with heresy. Wolsey, who always resented the interfer¬ 
ence of inferior prelates in matters which he had taken under his spe¬ 
cial supervision, and who probably thought he could arrest the epi¬ 
demic whenever he might please to speak the word, silenced the 
movement. Perhaps, moreover, he could not prevail on himself to 
extinguish, at once, the only light amid the stupid conservatism of 
Cambridge ; for the suspected parties were the sole promoters and ex¬ 
amples of liberal learning in the university. Whatever were the cause, 
the truth was permitted to spread three years longer, unobstructed by 
any authoritative interference. 

But a crisis gradually approached. Growing bolder and more 
earnest in the truth, Latimer openly inveighed against the crime of 
locking up the Scriptures froi?i the people in an unknown tongue. Upon 
this he was cited for heresy before West, Bishop of Ely, and forbidden 
to preach either in the churches of the university, or anywhere within 
his diocese. But the monasteries were exempt from episcopal juris¬ 
diction, and Barnes opened his chapel to the silenced preacher. Such 
were the crowds who rushed to hear him that the place could.not con¬ 
tain them. Barnes himself was now invited by the parish of St. Ed¬ 
wards to preach in their church ; and, though constitutionally timid, 
and hitherto, it would seem, cautious in his policy, he now resolved to 
give free and full utterance to his convictions. The rising tide of 
popular favor, an influence to which he was very susceptible, may 
have caused something of human vanity and presumption to mingle 
with his better feelings ; for, not contenting himself with a clear exhi¬ 
bition of Christian truth, he launched into a bold tirade, full of wit 
and sarcasm, against the worldly pomp and magnificence of the Lord 
Cardinal himself, then in the height and plenitude of power. A re¬ 
buke well merited, indeed, but which could hardly fail to lead to con¬ 
sequences for which, alas ! poor Barnes was but ill-prepared. This 
was on the 24th of December, 1525. A storm immediately arose in 
the university, one party siding most zealously with the preacher, as a 
champion of the faith, the other firmly resolved on his humiliation or 
his ruin. Public disputations on the contested points were kept up 
through the whole of January, and the first week of February, in 
which learned men from at least seven different colleges took part. 
Meanwhile a full account of the transaction had been sent to the Car¬ 
dinal. 

Things were thus progressing at Cambridge, and Wolsey’s proud 
spirit had been stung to madness, by the report of Barnes’s attack upon 
those peculiarly tender points in his character, when the distribution 
of Fyshe’s tract, on the second of February, completed his chagrin and 


tyndale’s new testament. 


83 


irritation. The emissaries of the “ secret search ,” at Cambridge, had 
a double commission ; first, the apprehension of Dr. Barnes, and sec¬ 
ondly, the seizure of heretical books, and of those in whose possession 
they were found. Of these, not fewer than thirty names were on their 
list, and the rooms of each had been exactly designated and described. 
But at the first instant of the officers’ arrival, Dr. Forman, of Queen’s 
College, himself an adherent of “ the new learning,” had given the 
warning word ; and by the time the sergeant-at-arms, attended by the 
Vice-Chancellor and the Proctors, was ready to go the rounds, Cam¬ 
bridge was, to all appearance, purified of heresy. Not a “ seditious” 
book was to be found ; and the officer, with only Dr. Barnes in 
charge, returned to London, no wiser than he came. 

The next day after his apprehension, Barnes stood before Wolsey, 
whose bitter taunts and hard demeanor betrayed how deeply his pride 
had been wounded. “ What ! Master Doctor,” he asked, “ had you 
not scope enough in the Scriptures to teach the people, that my golden 
shoes, my pole-axes, my pillars, my golden cushions, my crosses did 
so offend you, that you must make me ridiculiim caput before the peo¬ 
ple ? We were jollily that day laughed to scorn. Verily, it was a 
sermon fitter to be preached on a stage than in a pulpit.” Poor 
Barnes for a time held out bravely, alike against threats and persua¬ 
sions. But when the final alternative was put to him—“ Abjure or 
burn ’—his faith proved insufficient for the trial. Having, in great 
agony of mind, at length yielded to the demands of his judges, the next 
Sunday was appointed for the public expiation of his offence, at St. 
Paul’s. On that day, the triumphant cardinal, attired in purple, sur¬ 
rounded by six and thirty abbots, mitred priors and bishops, in dam¬ 
ask and satin, sat enthroned in all his pomp—the highest representa¬ 
tive of the Church of Rome in England—and beheld at his feet the 
leading champion of evangelical truth—an abjuring heretic ! Beside 
him stood—each like him with a faggot, the mark of shame, on his 
shoulder—live honorable merchants, convicted of the crime of aiding 
to bring the Bible into England. Within the rails were displayed the 
evidences of their guilt—“ great baskets full of books " in part the New 
Testaments of Tyndale—the precious booty gathered by the previous 
week’s “ search’’ in Oxford and London. After a sermon against 
Luther and Barnes, by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, these baskets were 
emptied into a large bonfire, kindled before the great crucifix at the 
north gate of St. Paul’s, wherein also the heretics, after making 
three times the circuit of the fire, cast their faggots. Wolsey then 
retired under a canopy, in great pomp, and Fisher proclaimed to the 
assembly certain days of pardon and indulgence, for being present on 


8 4 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


this occasion ; though by his own statement, when he afterward pub¬ 
lished his sermon, they had made such a tumult as to drown his voice 
during its delivery. At the close of the ceremony the unhappy 
Barnes, in accordance with the good faith and tenderness usually 
shown by the Romish Mother to those who have returned to her 
bosom, was sent back to prison. 

Such was the greeting which the New Testament received at the 
hands of the priesthood, on its first arrival in England, in the six¬ 
teenth century. It was just as they had treated Wickliffe’s Bible a 
hundred and forty years before. The spirit of the Romish Church 
had remained unchanged. 

♦ THE KING ENLISTED. 

Thus far, however, these measures had received no direct counte¬ 
nance from the King. In the “ secret search” just described, the 
cardinal had acted simply on his own ecclesiastical authority. But a 
few weeks only had elapsed, when Luther’s imprudence, and Henry’s 
vanity, furnished the means of enlisting him as a persecutor, with a 
zeal no less violent than theirs. 

Henry VIII.’s book against Luther, by which he gained from the 
Pope the title in which he so much gloried—” Defender of the Faith” 
—and Luther’s uncourteous, not to say virulent reply, are matters 
familiar to my readers. In 1525, Luther—urged, as he afterward pro¬ 
fessed, by Christian, King of Denmark—made a most blundering 
attempt at reconciliation with Henry, by a letter, in which he begged 
pardon for his former one, as foolish, precipitate, and offensive ; but, 
at the same time, explaining that he now understood the real author 
of the King’s book to have been Wolsey, whom he denounced as ” a 
monster, the abhorrence of God and man, and the plague of the realm 
of England.” It so happened, moreover, that the. original letter 
never reached Henry, but only a printed copy, and that not till six 
months after its date, or about one month after the degradation of 
Barnes, and the burning of the New Testaments at St. Paul’s. 

The wily cardinal well knew how to turn Luther’s faux pas to his 
own ends. Incensed beyond measure at the Reformer’s depreciation 
of his precious book, and of his own claim to be its author, and justly 
angry that the letter should have been given to the public months be¬ 
fore he saw it, Henry was easily persuaded that the New Testaments 
secretly conveyed in such numbers into the country, were from the 
same source, being part and parcel of Luther’s plot to turn all Eng¬ 
land to his heresy. The fact that the translator’s name was withheld, 
gave color to the assertion. The King was now quite willing to aid in 



TYNDALE’S NEW TESTAMENT. 


85 

their suppression ; and, accordingly, the first royal manifesto in de¬ 
fence of the burning the English Bible, and the severe punishment of 
those who should read it, soon appeared. To his Latin reply to 
Luther, was prefixed an English address to his own subjects, in which, 
after an account of Luther’s unfortunate letter, and his “ device” of 
translating the New Testament into English, “ with corruptions in 
the holy text, as well as with certain prefaces and glosses, for the ad¬ 
vancement and setting forth of his abominable heresies,” he proceeds 
in the following paternal style : “ In the avoiding whereof We, of 
our special tender zeal toward you, have, with the deliberate advice of 
the most reverend Father in God, Thomas Lord Cardinal, Legate a 
latere of the See Apostolic, Archbishop of York, Chancellor and our 
Primate of this realm, and other reverend fathers of the spirituality, 
determined the said and untrue translations to be burned, with further 
sharp correction and punishment against the keepers and readers of 
the same, reckoning of your wisdom very sure, that ye will well and 
thankfully receive our tender and loving mind to you therein, and that 
ye will never be so greedy of any sweet wine, be the grape never so 
pleasant, that ye will desire to taste it, being well advertised that 
your enemy before hath poisoned it.” 

The King’s dutiful subjects, however, were neither disposed to take 
his w'ord, nor submit to his authority in this matter. The idea, so long 
nourished in the humble congregations of the Lollards, that no power 
in Church or State can lawfully shut up the word of God from the 
people, had now spread far and wide in England. While, therefore, 
unremitted inquisition was made for the sacred book, and great num¬ 
bers were discovered and destroyed, so that, we are informed, “ dur¬ 
ing this year Bibles were burned daily yet, so far did the demand 
and supply outstrip the activity of the clergy, that the country was 
filled with copies. Tunstal, Bishop of London, who had been absent 
during this excitement, as Ambassador to Spain, returning in the 
autumn, found his diocese plentifully sown with both the quarto and 
the octavo editions. On the 24th of October the following decree 
was issued under his episcopal seal : 

“ By the duty of our pastoral office we are bound diligently, with all our 
power, to foresee, provide for, root out, and put away, all those things which 
seem to tend to the peril and danger of our subjects, and specially the destruction 
of their souls ! Wherefore, we having understanding, by the report of divers 
credible persons, and also by the evident appearance of the matter, that many 
children of iniquity, maintainers of Luther's sect, blinded through extreme wick¬ 
edness, wandering from the way of truth and the Catholic faith, craftily have 
translated the New Testament into our English tongue, intermingling therewith 
many heretical articles and erroneous opinions, pernicious and offensive, seduc- 


86 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


ing the simple people, attempting, by their wicked and perverse interpretations, 
to profanate the majesty of Scripture, which hitherto hath remained undefiled, 
and craftily to abuse the most Holy Word of God, and the true sense of the 
same ; of the which translation there are many books imprinted, some with 
glosses, and some without ; containing, in the English tongue, that pestiferous 
and most pernicious poison, dispersed throughout all our diocese, in great num¬ 
ber—which truly, without it be speedily foreseen, without doubt will contaminate 
and infect the flock committed unto us, with most deadly poison and heresy, to 
the grievous peril and danger of the souls committed to our charge, and the 
offence of God’s Divine Majesty : Wherefore we, Cuthbert, the Bishop aforesaid, 
grievously sorrowing for the premises, willing to withstand the craft and subtlety 
of the ancient enemy and his ministers, which seek the destruction of my flock, 
and with a diligent care to take heed unto the flock committed to my charge, de¬ 
siring to find speedy remedies for the premises, Do charge you, jointly and 
severally (the Archdeacons), and by virtue of your obedience, straightly enjoin 
and command you, that, by our authority, you warn, or cause to be warned, all 
and singular, as well exempt as not exempt, dwelling within your archdeaconries, 
that within thirty days’ space, whereof ten days shall be for the first, ten for the 
second, and ten for the third peremptory term, under pain of excommunication, 
and incurring the suspicion of heresy, they do bring in, and really deliver unto 
our Vicar-General, (Geoffrey Wharton), all and singular such books as contain 
the translation of the New Testament in the English Tongue : and that you do 
certify us, or our said Commissary, within two months after the day of the date 
of these presents, duly, personally, or by your letters, together with these pre¬ 
sents under your seals, what you have done in the premises, under pain of con¬ 
tempt ! Given under our seal, the four and twentieth day of October, a.d. 1526, 
in the fifth year of our consecration.” 

The Archbishop of Canterbury had already called an assembly of 
bishops, to consult on the alarming state of his province ; and a few 
days after the publication of TunstaTs decree, an archiepiscopal 
“ Mandate/’ couched in nearly the same terms, directed a search of 
the entire province, for the single object of seizing copies of the Eng¬ 
lish New Testament. 

Aware, however, that all this would avail little, so long as the offen¬ 
sive volume continued to pour in from abroad, they resolved on an 
energetic effort to cut off the source of supply. Such an eager crav¬ 
ing for the Scriptures had been created among the English people, that 
a printer of Antwerp, Christopher Endhoven by name, had taken it 
up as a profitable business investment ; and, without consulting Tyn- 
dale, had already brought out a third edition of his translation. This, 
with the former editions, was now coming into England, through 
members of the English House of Merchant Adventurers established 
in that great commercial emporium. 

The office of confidential agent of the Crown to the Imperial City 
at this time (the King’s Merchant, as he was called) was Sir John 


tyndale’s new testament. 


87 

Hackett, who held also the high office of Envoy to the Court of Bra¬ 
bant, of which the Princess Margaret, aunt of the Emperor Charles 
V., was then Regent. Directly after the issuing of Tunstal’s decree, 
Henry addressed a letter to the Princess, and another to the Governor 
of the English House, both of which had for their object the seizure 
and burning of English New Testaments found in that country, and 
the punishment, by banishment and confiscation, of all engaged in 
printing and circulating it. Chancellor Wolsey also wrote two letters 
to Hackett, to the same effect. The zeal and pertinacity with which 
the Envoy pushed the matter, though, as appears from his own let¬ 
ters, highly offensive to the Lords of Antwerp, and not over-welcome to 
the Princess Margaret, shows the urgency of his directions from home. 
But there were laws in Antwerp ; and its citizens could not be 
touched, “in life or goods,” for offences merely charged, and not 
proved against them, even though the accuser were a king. Some 
three or four hundred volumes were seized in various cities and 
burned, and Endhoven was temporarily imprisoned. But he was 
neither banished nor his property confiscated ; and while Hackett was 
picking up a few hundred stray copies, thousands, as they all knew too 
well, were making' their way toward England, or were already there. 

THE BISHOPS ON THE ALERT. 

Finding it out of the question to put a forcible stop to the circula¬ 
tion of the terrible book —to them the book of doom—the prelates 
now fell upon a new expedient. They resplved to clear the market by 
wholesale purchase from the printers and dealers ! This Warham, 
the Primate of England, effected so far as it was possible, through 
Hackett the Envoy, at an expense to his archiepiscopal province, of 
about five thousand dollars of our money. This was in the spring of 
1527. 

Tunstal, meanwhile, was equally busy in searching for copies already 
in the country, but not with the same success. He was just proceed¬ 
ing to more stringent measures in his diocese, which should utterly 
root out the obnoxious influence, when his appointment, in conjunction 
with Wolsey and Sir Thomas More, to a political embassy to France, 
obliged him to leave the matter in charge with his Vicar. He, either 
through disinclination or fear, did nothing about it, and the persecu¬ 
tion was stayed till his superior’s return, in October. « 

Wolsey came back from France with the new dignity of Vicar-gen¬ 
eral of the Pope through the king’s dominions, that is, with authority 
to exercise all the functions of the Pope in England. Its ecclesiastical 
affairs were placed Tinder his absolute control ; its clergy, from high- 


88 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


est to lowest, became subject to him as their supreme Head. His 
entrance on the high office was signalized by a general council which 
met in obedience to his summons, at Westminster, in November. 
Having pompously announced that “ now all the abusions of the 
Church should be amended,” he opened the court by an examination 
of two distinguished advocates of the truth, Arthur and Bilney, on 
the charge of heresy. After thus giving his countenance to the pro¬ 
ceeding, and by his arrogant and contemptuous bearing toward men 
infinitely better than himself, setting a worthy example to his bishops, 
he left the trial in their hands, being himself occupied with “ the 
affairs of the realm.” 

The sad result of the trial must be told. On the 2d of December 
Arthur abjured, nor is he ever again heard from in the ranks of the 
faithful. On the 7th, Bilney, after enduring for four days every 
species of mental torture, from the threats, the persecutions, and 
sophistical casuistry of Tunstal, West, and Fisher, followed his exam¬ 
ple. The next day, his head bowed with shame, and his heart even 
then racked with remorse, he bore a faggot at St. Paul’s, and was 
then remanded to prison during the Cardinal’s pleasure. Being at 
length released, he returned to Cambridge in a state of agony, scarcely 
short of despair ; so that for some two years his friends dared not 
leave him alone, day or night. ” They comforted him,” says Lati¬ 
mer, ” as they could, but no comfort would serve. And as for the 
comfortable places of Scripture, to bring them to him was as though 
a man should run him through the heart with a sword.” But at 
length, He who forgave the denial of Peter, spoke peace to the 
troubled conscience of his servant, and filled h : s soul with more than 
its early joy in believing. Saying that he must ‘‘go up to Jerusalem 
he now took leave of his friends, and passing through the shires of 
Norfolk and Essex, he spent many weeks preaching the gospel from 
house to house, and distributing copies of Tyndale’s New Testament. 
Being at length seized near London, the timid, but most loving and 
sincere disciple, received strength to confess his Master boldly before 
men, and went up to heaven in the fiery chariot of martyrdom. 

Thus determined and thorough were the measures of the high 
powers in Church and State, for the suppression of the word of God. 
Royal and priestly prohibitions,'decrees, mandates, secret inquisition, 
foreign diplomacy, and persecution, had all been tried in turn. And 
what had’they effected ? So mightily grew and prevailed the demand 
for the -Scriptures, that even while Endhoven lay in prison at Ant¬ 
werp and .the issue of his case was still doubtful, another Antwerp 
printer, if not indeed more than one, had judged the prospect of 



tyndale’s new testament. 


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pecuniary profit worth the risk of embarking in the same enterprise. 
On the 23d of May, 1527, Hackett writes to Wolsey, that in spite of 
all his efforts, “ some new printers of the town of Antwerp were offer¬ 
ing in the market divers English books, called ‘ The New Testa¬ 
ment,’ ” and that he had heard of “ more than two thousand such 
like English books” having been offered for sale at the late Frankfort 
fair. Hundreds of these were already on English ground. One John 
Raimund, or Ruremonde, an Antwerp printer, was convicted of hav¬ 
ing caused fifteen hundred of Tyndale’s New Testaments to be printed 
at Antwerp, and of bringing five hundred copies into England at one 
time. To such an extent had the city of London, especially, been 
pervaded by the influence, within the space of two years, that it was 
deemed unsafe, for one who had been at all *‘ inclined to the new 
learning,” even to breathe its air. Thus, as recorded in Tunstal’s 
Register of the trials in his diocese, Sebastian Herris, curate of the 
Parish Church of Kensington, being charged with possessing a copy 
of Tyndale’s New Testament, is forbidden, at his dismissal, to tarry 
or abide within the city of London, (being so dangerous a place to be 
infected with heresy ) above a day and a night ; but to go thence else¬ 
where, and not approach near the city anywhere, four miles in circuit, 
for the space of two years. 

The enemies of light could not yet perceive the futility of their war¬ 
fare ; and while the divine seed sown, as it were, by the winds «of 
heaven, was taking root in every direction, they were still erecting 
their clumsy bulwarks to prevent its entrance into England. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


tyndale’s reformatory writings. 

Wickliffe had closed his labors as reformer by giving the Bible 
to his countrymen. In his case, this was the natural order of things ; 
for the mind of his age needed to be awakened by a long preparatory 
process to a consciousness of the want which the Scriptures only 
could supply. With Tyndale the process was just the reverse. The 
voice of his age cried out for the word of God ; and it was his first 
object, by meeting this demand, to lay a broad and sure foundation 
for the great work of reform, which he saw to be accomplished. The 
New Testament being completed and sent forth on its mission, he 
now appears as the practical reformer, and applies its teachings in a 
direct assault upon the doctrines and practices of the Romish clergy. 

Well worthy does he show himself, in this respect also, to be the 
Elisha of the elder prophet. In his exposures of time-honored abuses, 
and his stern rebukes of those “ Cesarean Prelates” who sought to 
perpetuate them for their own selfish ends, we see the same fearless 
moral energy, the same reference to the supreme authority of God’s 
word, and heartfelt love and respect for the common people, which 
distinguished Wickliffe. With this deep earnestness was mingled, 
moreover, a vein of homely, racy humor, not unlike that of Luther, 
which imparts often a vivacity and quaint force to his indignant 
remonstrances and appeals, well adapted to influence the popular 
mind. 

In these writings we find abundant confirmation of one important 
fact, before alluded to ; that from the days of Wickliffe there had 
been little progress, 'in any respect, connected with the essential well¬ 
being of the nation, except so far as the influence of the Bible had 
extended. In the character of the clergy, the state of learning in the 
universities, the moral condition of the people, and the recognition of 
their rights, either civil or religious, on the part of government, the 
main current had flowed steadily toward a lower deep of darkness, 
degradation, and oppression. The counter current which was now 
beginning to make itself felt in every sphere, owed all its springs, and 
for the most part can be directly traced, to the reviving influence of 
the Scriptures. A century and a half nearly, during which the 


tyndale’s reformatory writings. 


91 


vernacular Bible had been thrust out of the reach of the mass of the 
community,'had developed in the character of the English race no 
inherent forces for retrieving its condition, and forming itself into a 
free, intelligent and virtuous people. 

The two treatises with which he immediately followed his New 
Testament, marked him out before all Christendom as a standard 
bearer in the cause of the Bible and the people, against that of the 
Pope and priesthood. He had sent forth the New Testament without 
his name ; “ following,” as he says, “ the counsel of Christ, which 
exhorteth men to do their good works secretly, and to be content 
with the conscience of well-doing.” The consequence was, however,, 
that certain anonymous works against the prelacy by other hands, writ¬ 
ten in a spirit of bitterness and railing with which Tyndale had no 
fellowship, were confidently ascribed to him. In the preface to the 
first of these treatises, therefore, he disavows the books falsely 
charged to him, and henceforth appears under his own name. From 
this time onward it was a name of power among both the friends and 
enemies of the truth in England. 

The ‘‘Parable of the Wicked Mammon,” is a development rich 
with Scripture knowledge and Christian experience, of the connec¬ 
tion between faith and works in our saltation, and strikes at the root 
of the popish trust in mere outward observances and ceremonies. 
Two or three brief quotations must suffice from this work, as a sam¬ 
ple of its manner, and an illustration of the pure morality and uni¬ 
versal benevolence resulting from the doctrine of justification by faith, 
rightly understood and truly received into the heart. 

“ The Spirit of God accompanieth faith, and bringeth with her 
light, wherewith a man beholdeth himself in the law of God, and 
seeth his miserable bondage and captivity, and humbleth himself, 
and abhorreth himself ; she bringeth God’s promises of all good 
things in Christ. God worketh with his word and in his word. And 
as his word is preached, faith rooteth herself in the heart of the elect, 
and as faith entereth and the word of God is believed, the power of 
God looseth the heart from the captivity and bondage under sin, and 
knitteth and coupleth him unto God, and to the will of God ; altereth 
him, changeth him clean, fashioneth and forgeth him anew, giveth 
him power to love and to do that which before it was impossible for 
him either to love or do, and turneth him unto a new nature, so that 
he loveth that which before he hated, and hateth that which before he 
loved ; and is clean altered and changed, and contrary disposed ; and 
is knit and coupled fast to God’s will, and naturally bringeth forth 
good works . . . And that doth he of his own accord, as a tree 


9 2 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


bringeth forth fruit of her own accord. And as thou needest not to 
bid a tree bring forth fruit, so there is no law to put unto him that be- 
lieveth and is justified by faith. . . . And as a whole man when 

he is athirst tarrieth but for drink, and when he is hungry abideth but 
for meat, and then drinketh and eateth naturally, even so is the faithful 
ever athirst and an hungered after the will of God, and tarrieth but 
for occasion. Where faith is mighty and strong, there is love fervent 
and deeds plenteous, and done with exceeding meekness ; where 
faith is weak, there love is cold, and the deeds few, and seldom bears 
flowers and blossoms in winter. 

• “ The order of love and charity which some dream, the Gospel of 

Christ knoweth not of ; that a man should begin at himself, and serve 
himself first, and then descend, I wot not by what steps. Love seek- 
eth not her own profit, but maketh a man to forget himself, and to 
turn his profit to another man, as Christ sought not himself or his 
own profit, but ours. The term, ‘myself,’ is not in the Gospel; 
neither yet father, mother, brother,, kinsman, that one should be pre¬ 
ferred in love above another. But Christ is all in all things. Every 
Christian man to another is Christ himself, and thy neighbor’s need 
hath as good a right to thy goods as hath Christ himself, which is heir 
and lord over all. And look, what thou owest to Christ, that thou 
owest to thy neighbor’s need ; to thy neighbor owest thou thine heart, 
thyself, and all that thou hast and canst do. ... In Christ we 
are all of one degree, without respect of persons. Notwithstanding, 
though a Christian man’s heart be open to all men, and receiveth all 
men, yet, because that his ability of goods extendeth not so far, this 
provision is made, that every man shall care for his own household, 
as father and mother, and thine elders that have holpen thee, wife, 
children and servants. When thou hast done thy duty to thy house¬ 
hold, and yet hast farther abundance of the blessing of God, that thou 
owest to the poor that cannot labor, or would labor and can get no 
work, and are destitute of friends. ... If thy neighbors which 
thou knowest be served, and thou yet have superfluity, and hearest 
necessity to be among the brethren a thousand miles off, to them thou 
art debtor. Yea, to the very infidels we be debtors if they need, so 
far forth as we maintain them not against Christ, or to blaspheme 
Christ. Thus is every man that needeth help thy father, mother, 
sister, and brother in Christ ; even as every man that doth the will of 
the Father is father, mother, brother, and sister unto Christ.” 

The work which followed this—“ The Obedience of a Christian 
Man”—is an exposition of the teachings of Scripture on the social 
duties of men, in all the relations of life. It was intended as a 


TYNDALE’S REFORMATORY WRITINGS. 


93 

defence of the Bible against the charge brought by the clergy, that its 
circulation among the laity tends to confusion and insubordination in 
society. It proves that it is they, on the contrary, who, by substituting 
for the true light of God’s word their own false doctrines and tradi¬ 
tions, have subverted all social order and virtue ; and that their zeal 
against the Bible is but hatred of that which, if permitted to go 
freely among the people, would strip them of their ill-gotten power. 

In the first part of the treatise, husbands and wives, parents and 
children, masters and servants, sellers and buyers, rulers and ruled, 
are taught their mutual duties, as set forth by direct Scripture pre¬ 
cept, or as plainly deducible from its great law of love. He is no less 
faithful to the king than to the subject, warning him of the dangers to 
which monarchs are especially liable, and of the final account to be 
rendered by him of all he has done in his high office, both good and 
bad. It is a strong proof that the tyrannical course of Henry VIII. 
was due less to his natural disposition, than to the evil influence of his 
spiritual guides, that he was deeply impressed by this treatise when he 
first read it, and remarked : “ This is a book for me, and for all 
kings.” 

The second part is a searching exposure of the abuses practised on 
the people by the priesthood, their corruption of Christian doctrines 
and ordinances ; the “ feigned ordinances,” by which they rule so 
cruelly over the consciences of men, and wring from them their 
worldly goods ; their usurpation of the civil power, and the conse¬ 
quent impoverishment, internal confusion, and foreign wars, into 
which their insatiable ambition and avarice has plunged the realm. 

“ ‘ Curse them [so he represents the Pope as saying to his vassals, 
the clergy] four times in the year. Make them afraid of everything, 
and namely [especially,] to touch mine anointed ; and make them to 
fear the sentence of the Church, suspensions, excommunications, and 
curses. Be they right or wrong, bear them in hand that they are to 
be feared yet. Preach me and mine authority, and how terrible a 
thing my curse is, and how black it makes their souls. On the holi¬ 
days, which were ordained to preach God’s word, set up long ceremo¬ 
nies, long matins, long Masses, and long even-songs, and all in Latin, 
that they understand not ; and rqll them in darkness, that ye may 
lead them wherever ye wiU. And lest such things should be too tedi¬ 
ous, sing some, pipe some, ring the bells, and lull them and rock 
them asleep.’ And yet Paul (2 Cor. xiv.) forbiddeth to speak in the 
church or congregation, save in the tongue that all understand. For 
the layman thereby is not edified or taught. How shall the layman 
say Amen (saith Paul) to thy blessing or thanksgiving, when he 


94 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


wotteth not what thou sayest ? He wotteth not whether thou bless or 
curse. 

“ ‘ What then saith the Pope ? ‘ What care I for Paul ? I command, 
by virtue of obedience, to read the Gospel in Latin ; let them not 
pray but in Latin ; no, not their Pater Noster. If any be sick, go 
also and say them a Gospel, and all in Latin ; yea, to the very corn 
and fruits of the field, in the procession week, preach the Gospel in 
Latin. Make the people believe that it shall grow the better.’ It is 
as good to preach it to swine as to men, if thou preach it in a tongue 
which they understand not.—How shall I prepare myself to God’s 
commandments ? How shall I be thankful to Christ for his kind¬ 
ness ? How shall I believe the truths and promises which God hath 
sworn, while thou tellest them unto me in a tongue which I under¬ 
stand not ? 

“ * What then,’ saith my Lord of Canterbury, to a priest that would 
have had the New Testament gone forth in English ; ‘ what,’ saith 
he, ‘ wouldst thou that the lay people should wete what we do ?’ ” 

“ Mark well how many parsonages or vicarages are there in the 
realm, which, at the least, have a plough-land * apiece. Then note 
the land of bishops, abbots, priors, nuns, knights of St. John, cathe¬ 
dral churches, colleges, chauntries, and free chapels. For though the 
house fall in decay, and the ordinance of the founder be lost, yet will 
they not lose their lands. What cometh once in, may never more 
out. They make a free chapel of it, so that he which enjoyeth it 
shall do nought therefore. Beside all this, how many chaplains do 
gentlemen find at their own cost, in their own houses ? How many 
sing for souls by testaments ? Then the proving of testaments, the 
prizing of goods, the Bishop of Canterbury’s prerogative. Is that not 
much through the realm in a year ? Four offering days, and| privy 
tithes. There is no servant, but that he shall pay somewhat of his 
wages. None shall receive the body of Christ at Easter, be he never 
so poor a beggar, or never so young a lad or maid, but they must pay 
somewhat for it. Then mortuaries for forgotten tithes (say they). 
And yet what parson or vicar is there, that will forget to have a pig- 
eon-house, to peck up somewhat both at sowing-time and harvest, 
when corn is ripe ? They will forget nothing. No man shall die in 
their debt ; or if any man do, he shall pay if when he is dead. They 

* “ The measurement of the plough-latid varied in different counties, and in 
the same counties at different times. In general, it designated as much arable 
land as could be managed and tilled by one plough, and its team of horses or 
oxen, in the year ; having meadow, pasture, and houses and cattle attached to 
it.”—Note to Works of the Eng. Reformers, vol. i., p. 544. 


tyndale’s reformatory writings. 


95 


will lose nothing. Why ? It is God’s ; it is not theirs. It is St. 
Hubert’s rents, St. Alban’s lands, St. Edmond’s right, St. Peter’s 
patrimony.—Item—if a man die in another man’s parish, besides that 
he must pay at home a mortuary for forgotten tithes, he must there, 
also, pay the best he there hath. Whether it be a horse of twenty 
pound, or how good soever he be ; either a chain of gold of an hun¬ 
dred marks, or five hundred pounds, if it so chance. Then bead- 
rolls. Item—christenings, churchings, banns, weddings, offering at 
weddings, offering of wax and lights, which come to their damage ; 
beside the superstitious waste of wax, in torches and tapers, through¬ 
out the land. Then brothers and pardoners.—What get they also by 
confessions ? . Soul-masses, dirges, month-minds, peace- 

minds, All-souls day, and trentals. The mother Church and the high 
altar must have somewhat in every testament. Offerings at priest’s 
first masses. Item—no man is professed, of whatsoever religion it be 
[i.e. of whatever clerical order], but he must bring somewhat. Then 
hallowing or rather conjuring of churches, chapels, altars, super-altars, 
chalice, vestment, bells. Then book, bell, candlestick, organs, vest¬ 
ments, copes, altar-cloths, surplices : then towels, basins, ewers, 
censer, and all manner of ornaments, must be found them freely, 
they will not give a mite thereunto. Last of all, what swarms of beg¬ 
ging friars are there ! The parson sheareth, the vicar shaveth, the 
parish priest polletn, the friar scrapeth, and the pardoner pareth ; we 
lack but a butcher to pull off the skin. 

“ What get they in their spiritual law (as they call it) in a year, at 
the arches, and in every diocese? What get the commissioners, and 
officials, with their somners and apparitors, by bawdrey in a year ? 
Shall ye not find curates enough, which to flatter the commissioners 
and officials withal, that they may go quit themselves, shall open to 
them the confessions of the richest of their parishes, whom they cite 
privately, and lay to their charges secretly. If they desire to know 
their accusers, ‘ Nay,’ say they, ‘ the matter is known well enough, 
and to more than ye are ware of. Come, lay your hand on the book ; 
if ye forswear yourself, we shall bring proofs ; we will handle you, we 
will make an ensample of you.’ Oh, how terrible are they ! ‘ Come 

and swear,’ say they, ‘ that thou will be obedient to our injunctions !’ 
And by that craft, wring they their purses, and make them drop as 
long as there is a penny in them.” 

“ 4 Not given to filthy lucre, but abhorring covetousness and as 
Peter saith, ‘ Taking the oversight of them, not as though ye were 
compelled thereunto, but willingly. Not of desire of filthy lucre, but 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


96 

of a good mind ; not as though ye were lords over the parishes. 
Over the parishes, quoth he ! O Peter, Peter, thou wast too long a 
fisher ; thou wast never brought up at the Arches, neither wast Master 
of the Rolls, nor yet Chancellor of England. They are not content 
*to reign over king and emperor, and the whole earth ; but challenge 
authority also in heaven and in hell. It is not enough for them to 
reign over all that are quick, but have created them a purgatory, to 
reign also over the dead, and to have one kingdom more than God 
himself hath.” 

“ They take away first God’s word, with faith, hope, peace, unity, 
love, and concord ; then house and land, rent and fee, tower and 
town, goods and cattle, and the very meat out of men’s mouths. All 
these live by purgatory. When others weep for their friends, they 
sing merrily ; when others lose their friends, they get friends. The 
Pope, with all his pardons, is grounded on purgatory. Priests, 
monks, canons, friars, with all other swarms of heretics, do but em¬ 
ploy purgatory, and fill hell. Every Mass, say they, delivereth one 
soul out of purgatory. If that were true—yea, if ten Masses were 
enough for one soul—yet were the parish priests and curates of every 
parish sufficient to scour purgatory. All the other costly work of 
men might be well spared.” 

In the course of the treatise he explains his view of what the Scrip¬ 
tures teach respecting the Sacraments, the offices in the Church, the 
support of the clergy, and their relation to the civil power. In regard 
to all these, his views coincide in all essential points with those of 
Wickliffe. There are but two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s 
Supper ; and their efficacy depends on the spirit in which they are 
received.—There are but two offices in the Church of Christ, Bishop, 
or Elder, and Deacon. The duty of the first is to serve the Church 
in spiritual things, being “nothing but an officer to teach, and to 
minister the Sacraments ordained, and not to be a mediator between 
God and us.” “ According as every man believeth God’s promises, 
longeth for them, and is diligent to pray unto God to fulfill them, so 
is his prayer heard, as good the prayer of a cobbler, as of a cardinal ; 
and of a butcher, as of a bishop ; and the blessing of a baker that 
knoweth the truth is as good as the blessing of our most holy father 
the pope. Christ, when he had fulfilled his course, anointed his 
apostles and disciples with the same spirit, and sent them forth, 
without all manner of disguising, like other men also, to preach the 
atonement and peace which Christ had made between God and man. 
The apostles, likewise, disguised no man, but chose men anointed with 


tyndale’s reformatory writings. 


97 


the same spirit ; one to preach the word of God, whom we call, after 
the Greek tongue, a bishop or priest ; that, is. in English, an overseer 
and an elder.” “ This overseer^ because he was taken from his own 
business and labor to preach God’s word unto the parish, hath right, 
by the authority of his office, to challenge an honest living of the par¬ 
ish, as thou mayst see in the Evangelists, and also in Paul. For who 
will have a servant, and will not give him meat, drink, and raiment, 
and all things necessary ? How they would pay him, whether in 
money, or assign hjjn so much rent, or in tithes, as the guise now is 
in many countries, was at their liberty.” ” Likewise in every con¬ 
gregation chose they another after the same example, and even so 
anointed, as it is to see in the said chapter of Paul, and Acts vi. 
Whom after the Greek word we call deacon ; that is to say, in Eng¬ 
lish, a servant, or a minister, whose office it was to help and assist the 
priest, and gather up his duty, and gather for the poor of the parish, 

which were destitute of friends, and could not work. 

Every min gave according to his ability, and as God put into his 
heart, to the maintenance of the priest, deacon, and other common 
ministers, and of the poor, and to find learned men to teach, and so 
forth.” ” ‘ We,’ will they say, ‘ are the pope, cardinal, and bishops ; 
all authority is ours. The Scripture pertaineth unto us, and is our 
possession. And we have a law, that whosoever presumes to preach 
without the authority of the bishops, is excommunicate in the deed- 
doing. Whence, therefore, hast thou thine authority ?’ will they say. 
‘ The old Pharisees had the Scripture in captivity, likewise, and 
asked Christ : By what authority doest thou these things ? . 

Christ asked them another question, and so will I do our hypocrites. 
Who sent you ? God ? Nay, he that is sent of God, speaketh God’s 
word. Now speak ye not God’s word, nor anything, save your own 
laws, made clean contrary unto God’s word. . . . And as for 

mine authority, or who sent me, I report me unto my works, as 
Christ. If God’s word bear record that I say truth, why should any 
man doubt but that God. the father of truth and of light, hath sent 
me ? . . . ‘By this means., thou wilt that every man be a 
preacher,’ will they say. ‘ Nay, verily. For God will that not, and 
therefore, will I it not ; no more than I would that every man were 
mayor of London or every man of the realm King thereof. God is 
not the God of dissension and st rife, but of unity and peace, and of good 
order. I will, therefore, that where a congregation is gathered together 
in Christ, one be chosen after.the rule of Paul, and that he only 
preach, and else no man openly : but that every man teach his house¬ 
hold after the same doctrine. But if the preacher preach false, then 



98 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


whosoever’s heart God moveth, to the same it shall be lawful to 
rebuke and improve the false teacher, with the clear and manifest 
Scripture, and that same is, no doubt, a true prophet sent of God. 
For the Scripture is God’s, and their’s that believe, and not the false 
prophets'.” 

The law of spiritual life and growth, as contained within each con¬ 
gregation of believers, being derived continually from Christ, the ever 
present head, is beautifully developed in the following passage : 

“Here [within the congregations of Christ] 0 all thing is free and 
willingly ; and the Holy Ghost bringeth them together, which maketh 
their wills free, and ready to bestow themselves on their neighbor’s 
profit : and they that come offer themselves, and all that they have, 
or can do to serve the Lord and their brethren ; and every man, as 
he is found apt and meet to serve his neighbor, is put into office. 
And of the Holy Ghost are they sent, wilh the consent of their 
brethren, and with their own consent also ; and God’s word ruleth in 
that congregation, into which word every man confirmeth [conform¬ 
ed*] his will ; and Christ, which is always present, is the head.” 

He is equally explicit in regard to the clerical claim, still as per¬ 
fectly intact as in the days of Wickliffe, of exemption from civil juris¬ 
diction. In the summary, at the close of the book, of its contents, he 
says : 

“ I proved also that all men, without exception, are under the 
temporal sword, whatsoever names they give themselves. 'Because 
the priest is chosen out of the laymen to teach this obedience, is that 
a lawful cause for him to disobey ? Because he preacheth that the 
laymen may not steal, is it therefore lawful for him to steal unpun¬ 
ished ? Because thou teachest me that I may not kill, or if I do, the 
King must kill me again, is it therefore lawful for thee to kill and go 
free ? . . . . The priests of the old law, with their high bishop, 

Aaron, and all his successors, though they were anointed by God’s 
commandment and appointed to serve God in his temple, and 
exempt from all offices and ministering of worldly matters, were yet 
under the temporal sword, if they brake the laws. ... I proved, 
also, that no king hath power to grant them such liberties.” 

The clergy still held the monopoly of all the high secular offices of 
the kingdom. Thus speaks the reformer on this point : 

“ Let kings take their duty of their subjects, and that is necessary 
to the defence of the realm. Let them rule their realms themselves, 
with the help of laymen that are sagfc, wise, learned, and expert. Is 
it not a shame above all shames, and a monstrous thing, that no man 
should be found able to govern a worldly kingdom, save by bishop and 


tyndale’s reformatory writings. 


99. 


prelates, that have forsaken the world, and are taken out of the 
world, and appointed to preach the Kingdom of God ? . . . To 

preach God’s word is too much for half a man ; and to minister a 
temporal kingdom is too much for half a man ; either other requireth 
an whole man ; one, therefore, cannot well do both. . . . Paul 

saith in the ninth chapter of the first Corinthians, ‘ Woe is me if I 
preach not.’ A terrible saying, verily, for popes, cardinals, and 
bishops. If he had said, ‘ Woe be unto me if I fight not, and move 
princes to war, or if I increase not St. Peter’s patrimony ’ (as they 
call it), it had been a more easy saying for them.” 

The Preface to this book, itself about thirty pages in length, is 
properly a tract in defence of the translation of the Scriptures into 
the mother tongue, and their unrestricted use by the laity. He 
argues this from the fact, that Moses gave the people of Israel the law 
in their mother tongue ; that the Prophets wrote, and David uttered 
his psalms in the mother tongue ; that the sermons recorded in the 
Acts were preached to th§ people in the mother tongue ; that the 
Bible was translated by Jerome into his mother tongue.—” What 
should be the cause,” he asks, “ that we, which walk in the broad 
day, should not see as well as they that walked in the night, or that 
we should not see as well at noon as they did in the twilight ? Came 
Christ to make the world more blind ? By this means, Christ is the 
darkness of the world, and not the light, as he saith himself.” He 
pleads for it, also, because God in the Old Testament, required in all 
the people a knowledge of the law, and Christ,- in the New, com¬ 
manded to search the Scriptures ; because, as Christ foretold, there 
are false Christs and false prophets, whose deeds and doctrines must 
be judged by Scripture ; because the spiritual guides of the people 
teach doctrines contrary to, and subversive of each other, and it can¬ 
not be known which is right but by Scripture. 

“ ‘ Nay,’ say they, ‘the Scripture is so hard, that thou couldst 
never understand it, but by the doctors.’ That is, I must measure 
the metevard by the cloth. Here be twenty cloths of divers lengths, 
and divers breadths ; how shall I be sure of the length of the mete- 
yard by them ? I suppose, rather must I be sure of the length of .the 
meteyard, and thereby measure and judge the cloths. If I must first 
believe the doctor, then is the doctor first true, and the truth of the 
Scripture dependeth of his truth ; and so the truth of God springeth 
of the truth of man. Thus, antichrist turneth the roots of the trees 
upward.” It was pretended, moreover, that no man could under¬ 
stand Scripture, till he had made himself master of philosophy, by the 
study of Aristotle and the doctors. This leads Tyndale to notice the 


100 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


character of the so-called philosophy taught in the universities, which 
we find to be no other than those same solemn frivolities of Duns 
Scctus, and the other scholastics which had driven all true learning 
out of Oxford in the fourteenth century. As then, it was connected 
with the bitterest hostility to revelation. No one could speak with 
more authority on this point than Tyndale, who had resided there so 
many years, and had partaken in the struggle consequent on the 
attempt of Christian scholars to introduce the Greek and Roman 
classics, and the original Scriptures into the course of academic 
study. He maintains that, so far from this philosophy being neces¬ 
sary to prepare one for a knowledge of the Scriptures, these are 
needed to protect him from the contaminating influence of the philos¬ 
ophy. “ And then, if they go abroad, and walk by the fields and 
meadows of all manner of doctors and philosophers, they should 
catch no harm. They should discern the poison from the honey, and 
bring home nothing but that which is wholesome.” 

“ But now,” he proceeds, “do ye clean contrary, ye drive them 
from God’s word, and will let no man come thereto until he have 
been two years master of art. First they nosel them in sophistry, and 
in benefundatum. And there corrupt they their judgments with appa¬ 
rent arguments and with alleging unto them texts of logic, of natural 
philautia , of metaphysic and moral philosophy, and of all manner of 
books of Aristotle, and of all manner of doctors, which yet they never 
saw. Moreover, one holdeth this, another that ; one is a real, 
another a nominal, What wonderful dreams they have of their pre¬ 
dicaments, universals, second intentions, qui dities , haec scities , and 
relatives. And whether species fundata in chimera be vera species. And 
whether this proposition be true non cns est aliquid , whether ens be 
ccquivoeum, or univocum.—Ens is a voice only, say some. Ens is uni - 
vocum, saith another, and descendeth into ens creatum , and into ens 
increatum , per modos intrinsecos . When they have this way brawled 
eight, ten, or twelve years, or more, and after that their judgments 
are utterly corrupt, then they begin their divinity ; not at the Scripture, 
but every man taketh a sundry doctor, which doctors are as sundry, 
and as divers, the one contrary unto the other, as there are divers 
fashions and monstrous shapes, none like another, among our sects of 
religion. F,very religion, every university, almost every man, hath a 
sundry divinity. Now whatsoever every man findeth with his doctor, 
that is his Gospel, and that only is true with him, and that holdeth he 
all his life long ; and every man to maintain his doctor withal, cor¬ 
rupted the Scripture, and fashioneth it after his own imagination, as 
a potter doth his clay. Of what text thou provest hell, will another 


tyndale’s reformatory writings. 


IOI 


prove purgatory, another li?nbo patrum , another the assumption of our 
lady, and another shall prove of the same text that an ape hath a tail. 
And of what text the grave [gray] friar proveth that our lady was 
without original sin, will the black friar prove that she was conceived 
in original sin.” 

How finely, after this exposure of the folly of human wisdom, does 
Tyndale say : “ God is not man’s imagination, but only that which 
he saith of himself. God is nothing but his law and his promises ; 
that is to say, that which he biddeth thee to do, and that which he 
biddeth thee believe and hope. God is but his word, as Christ saith 
(John viii.), I am that I say unto you ; that is to say, That which I 
preach I am, my words are spirit and life. God is that only which he 
testifieth of himself ; and to imagine any other thing than that, is 
damnable idolatry. Therefore saith the n8th Psalm, Happy are they 
which search the testimonies of the Lord ; that is to say, that which 
God testifieth and witnesseth unto us. But how shall I that do, 
when ye will not let me have his testimonies or witnesses in a tongue 
which I understand ? Will ye resist God ? Will ye forbid him to 
give his Spirit unto the lay, as well as unto you ? Hath he not made 
the English tongue ? Why forbid ye him to speak in the English 
tongue, then, as well as in Latin ?” 


CHAPTER XV. 


CARDINAL WOLSEY’S MEASURES TO SILENCE TYNDALE. 

It is not strange that a voice like this should sorely have disturbed 
those whose treachery and oppression were thus laid open, in plain 
English, for all classes of the laity to read and comment on. No 
wonder that Cardinal Wolsey and his bishops thought it necessary to 
silence this terrible censor, who, from his obscure retreat in a foreign 
land, could stretch forth his hand and shake the very pillars of the 
hierarchy. From this time it became one of their leading objects, by 
force or fraud, to compass his apprehension and death. 

In June, 1528, the Lord Cardinal instructed Sir John Hackett, still 
envoy at the Court of Brabant, to procure from the Princess Regent 
his arrest, on the charge of heresy, and that of two other men, viz., 
Roye, erroneously supposed to be still engaged with him in translating 
the Bible, and Harman, a wealthy and honorable English merchant 
residing in Antwerp, who was known to haYe been zealously engaged in 
bringing the New Testament into England. But Hackett was obliged 
to reply that the Privy Council, after debating the case with him, had 
decided that it was unlawful, even for the Emperor himself, to deliver 
up a heretic, except after examination first held where he was ; and 
not then, except by advice of Inquisitors of the faith there present. 
They promised, however, to apprehend the obnoxious persons if they 
could be found, together with their books ; and if, on being confronted 
with learned men from England—who it was requested might be sent 
over for the purpose—their guilt should appear, they were to be de¬ 
livered to Wolsey, or punished there, “ according to their deeds.” 

After fourteen days’ search, Harman and his wife—“ as greatly sus¬ 
pected of such like faction as her husba?id is ”—were taken and com¬ 
mitted to prison, and an inventory of their goods delivered to the 
Emperor. Still, Hackett saw so little prospect of success in this case, 
that he suggests to Wolsey to drop the charge of heresy, and demand 
Harman as a traitor to the King of England. 

‘‘I would, ” writes this honorable ambassador, “ that your Grace had 
this Richard Harman there in England ; for, as I hear, he is a Roethe 
of great mischief. And to get him out of these countries, I know no 
better means at this time, than, if the King’s Highness have any 


wolsey’s measures to silence tyndale. 103 

action of treason at him, that his Highness, or your Grace, write a 
good letter to my Lady, that she should send you the aforesaid Har¬ 
man, as traitor to the King—leaving the heresy beside, to the correc¬ 
tion of these countries, if your Grace think so good ; and in this man¬ 
ner we may have two strings to our bow : for I doubt greatly, after the 
statutes of these countries, that, revoking his heresies, for the first 
time he will escape with a slender punishment ; but for treason to the 
King they cannot pardon him in these parts, after the Statutes of our 
Intercourse, dated the year 1505. I certify your Grace, that it were a 
good deed, and very convenient, to chastise these Lutherans that be 
accused of heresy, that they were as well comprehended in the ‘ Inter¬ 
course ’ as traitors be ; for as soon as they be past the seas they know 
no more God, neither King.” 

Wolsey seized on this hint, and obtained a letter from the King, re¬ 
questing that Harman should be given up as a traitor. But the Prin¬ 
cess required, in turn, specifications of his crime ; and finally, Hackett 
informs his Grace that, “ notwithstanding the King’s patent letters, the 
Lady Margaret would not deliver up the heretics.” Mr. Harman was 
released, after an imprisonment of more than seven months—the term 
for which he could be detained having expired, without any proof 
having been brought by Hackett of the charges made against him. 
But the envoy soon found that he had been meddling with a game at 
which two could play. Having gone to Antwerp a few weeks after, 
on some business for the King, he found himself arrested at Harman’s 
suit for all the costs and charges of his imprisonment ; since “ the law 
of Antwerp [a free, imperial city], had aforetime declared him, by 
their sentence, absolute, free and frank, of all such actions as the 
Margrave, or the Scout of Antwerp, as officers of the Prince, by my 
information laid to his charge.” Next day he was obliged to answer 
for himself before the city Senate ; and after a mortifying detention, 
was only permitted to depart on condition that he should appear in 
person, or by his procurator, whenever summoned for the farther 
prosecution of the cause. On arriving at Brussels he made his com¬ 
plaint to the Princess and her Council, who professed themselves much 
displeased with the treatment he had received ; but except a severe 
rebuke to the Lords of Antwerp, and requisition that their Amant (the 
officer who had caused his arrest) should ask his pardon, no amend 
was made for the affront, and Hackett did not again find it expedient 
to be much in Antwerp. The British merchant had read him a lesson 
which he long had cause to remember. 

All efforts to discover Tyndale and Roye had been thus far unsuc¬ 
cessful, but Wolsey was not disheartened. It had been ascertained 


104 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


that the Testaments with which Harman had been concerned “ were 
sent to him out of Germany ”—a vexatious proof that Warham’s ex¬ 
pensive purchase had not exhausted the supply. But it might also 
furnish a clue to the translators. He therefore took into his confi¬ 
dence two friars of Greenwich—West and Flegg by name—and dis¬ 
patched them secretly to Cologne, with a letter to counsellor Rincke 
(the same who lent his influence to Cochlseus in 1525) soliciting his aid 
for the apprehension of these two men, as well as in buying up “ all 
books printed in the English language.” They were authorized by 
the Cardinal to draw on Hackett for whatever money was necessary 
to effect these objects. 

The honorable councillor was prompt to meet the wishes of his 
great friend at the Court of England. He informs him that he had 
himself been to Frankfort on the business, and, “ by gifts and pres¬ 
ents," had so conciliated the Frankfort consuls, as well as some of the 
senators and judges, as to secure, through their aid, possession of 
” all the books from every quarter,” which, but for his labors, would 
soon have been brought over to England and Scotland, “ inclosed in 
packages, artfully covered over with and concealed in flax. “ I have,” 
he adds, ” lately brought the printer himself, John Schott [of Stras- 
burg], before the consuls, judges, and senators of Frankfort. I put 
him upon oath, that he should confess whatever books he had printed 
in the English language, the German, French, or any other idiom. 
Then, upon his said oath, he confessed that he had as yet printed 
only one thousand books ( sex quaternionum ) and one thousand ( novem 
quaternionum ) and this by the order of Roye and Hutchyn [Tyndale], 
who, wanting money, were not able to pay for the books printed. 

. . . Wherefore, I have purchased them almost all , and ?iow have them 
in my house at Cologne." He then desires instructions how he shall 
dispose of them, and closes with the suggestion : “As to myself and 
mine, by the favor of God, possibly there may be an opportunity for his 
Royal Highness and your Grace to recompense us. May your Grace, 
therefore, prosper many happy years !” 

Of Tyndale, Roye, or their accomplices, he could as yet find no 
trace ; but he promises, with his “ utmost diligence” to ferret out 
their haunts, and get them into custody. For further consultation 
with his Grace on this important mission, he sent back West, together 
with his own son and a confidential servant, “ who,” he says, “ will 
conceal and keep quiet the whole matter, whatsoever your Grace may 
commit to them—whom I specially send over into the presence of the 
King and your Grace, for the more convenient dispatch of this very 



wolsey’s measures to silence tyndale. 


105 

business, that I may explain and execute the matter in a way which 
may be acceptable to the King’s grace and yours.” 

He seems, however, to have spent his labor, and the money of his 
employers, to but little profit. The two thousand books referred to 
in his letter as purchased from Schott, were, no doubt, those anony¬ 
mous productions before alluded to, written by Roye and others 
against the Cardinal. Schott, who was of course anxious to rid him¬ 
self of his dead stock, may have baited Rincke, by pretending that it 
consisted, in part, of works by Tyndale ; but it does not appear that 
he ever printed anything at Strasburg. 

As to the reformer *himself, the councillor was entirely off the 
track. Tyndale was, at this time, at Marburg in Hesse Cassel, where 
the new and flourishing Protestant University, the first ever estab¬ 
lished, had called together men whose eminent scholarship and con¬ 
geniality of views with his own must have rendered it a residence 
equally delightful and advantageous. During this year and part of 
the next (1528-9), the only press then existing at Marburg was kept 
in busy occupation by Tyndale and his beloved associate Frith, with 
new works in English, for the instruction of their countrymen. Here 
is dated the short treatise on the Scripture Doctrine of Marriage, and 
the exposition of 1 Cor. vii. ; both of which were intended to coun¬ 
teract those lax and corrupting views of the conjugal relation which 
had gained currency through the influence of a clergy without prin¬ 
ciple and above law. 

Meanwhile, Tyndale’s writings and his New Testament were mak¬ 
ing steady progress in England, in spite of all vigilance and opposi¬ 
tion. It is a deeply interesting fact, that it was among the humble 
believers whom, under the name of Lollards, we have seen enduring 
persecution for their attachment to YVickliffe’s Bible, that the most 
eager interest was manifested in the improved translation. They had 
still their secret meetings for the reading and exposition of the Scrip¬ 
tures and other devout exercises, in London, as also in Colchester, 
Witham, Braintree, and various other places in Essex, and in the 
Friary of Clare in Suffolk ; and it was chiefly from their ranks that 
the bishops were furnished with the victims, through whose punish¬ 
ment they sought to check in the community the growing desire to 
become acquainted with the Scriptures. Yet we have the most satis¬ 
factory evidence that they continued to increase in numbers, as well 
as in the depth and ardor of their piety, and that their influence was 
felt as a powerful leaven through the humbler classes of the com¬ 
munity. These ” Congregations”—so they were now called—seem 
to have been strictly assemblies of believers, organized on the model 


106 ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 

of the apostolic Churches, for the stated worship of God, and the en¬ 
joyment of the sacraments. They will come again before our notice, 
in the history of the persecutions during the reign of Mary. 

But alarming as was the # aspect of affairs in England, when Rincke 
made his report to the Lord Cardinal, that dignitary seems to have 
given no farther attention to the matter. Before the end of the year, 
he was too busy in negotiating the King’s divorce, and in otherwise 
propping up his own falling fortunes, to concern himself either with 
apprehending heretics, or rewarding the services of such friends as the 
disinterested patrician of Cologne. Henceforth, he appears only as a 
subordinate character, and a man of higher mark takes the lead in this 
great conflict. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


THE NEW ANTAGONIST. 

The steady progress of light, during the two years following the in¬ 
troduction of Tyndale’s New Testament into England, had convinced 
the prelacy that it could not be arrested by authority and force alone. 
The public mind was deeply infected with the new opinions, and the 
more they strove against the influence by outward violence, the more 
it grew. They were at length compelled to yield so much to truth, as 
to come down from their proud position and meet it in its own way ; 
to submit to what they most abhorred—the discussion of the case be¬ 
fore the people, in plain English. They felt too, little as they would 
have been willing to confess it, that no common opponent would 
answer, to measure lances with William Tyndale. They selected for 
the purpose one who, in natural genius, accomplished scholarship, 
and power as a writer was, by common consent, the choicest man in 
England. His readiness and felicity as an extempore orator had 
gained him the name of “ the English Demosthenes,” while his 
literary productions had placed him among the most elegant Latinists, 
and the most admired philosophers and wits of Europe. He had held 
conspicuous public stations already more than twenty years ; and as 
Advocate, Under-Sheriff and Justice of the Peace for the city of Lon¬ 
don, had won the highest general estimation, as a man of profound 
legal knowledge and almost unequalled sagacity and skill in the man¬ 
agement of public business. In 1517, in compliance with the impera¬ 
tive command of Henry VIII., though much against his own wishes, 
he entered the immediate service of the crown, and from that time 
exercised a leading influence on the affairs of the realm. But his 
power was not merely that of talent and station. His unspotted 
domestic virtue, true old-Roman contempt of luxury and show, and 
his unimpeachable integrity in every public relation, in a time of un¬ 
surpassed extravagance and corruption—when even cardinals and 
bishops hardly made a secret of their profligacy, and bribery was the 
rule in courts of justice—had given him a moral weight in the nation, 
such as was possessed by no other man. 

It is not strange, then, that when Sir Thomas More consented, at 
the solicitation of the bishops, to undertake the refutation of the 


io8 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


growing heresy, its opponents should have indulged the most confident 
anticipations that its influence with the popular mind was about to 
suffer a complete overthrow. There were strong reasons, too, why 
the friends of truth should be satisfied with the choice. In addition 
to Sir Thomas More’s reputation for candor and uprightness, he had 
shown leanings, in his previous life, which might naturally lead them 
to expect from him greater liberality toward their views, than could 
be looked for from the clergy. He had been early linked, by the 
most intimate literary and religious friendships, with the cause of 
progress. From his youth he had been a passionate lover of classic 
learning, then so closely associated with the study of the Scriptures. 
The enlightened and pious Dean Colet, before mentioned as the first 
lecturer on Paul’s Epistles at Oxford, was his spiritual confidant and 
adviser, and was regarded by him with the reverence and affection due 
to a father. While still at the university, his acquaintance with Eras¬ 
mus, who had already commenced his splendid career as the champion 
of liberal culture, gave a powerful impulse and direction to his mental 
development. It could hardly fail that while drinking with Erasmus 
at the fountain of the Muses—experiencing in himself the solid bene¬ 
fits and the exquisite pleasures of communion with the great masters 
of thought and style—young More should come to look, with his 
friend’s eyes, on the obstacles then opposed to the progress of true 
learning, in the character and influence of the clergy. He became, 
heart and soul, one of the noble corps who, with Erasmus at its head, 
broke the ranks of Obscurantism in the sixteenth century. The wea¬ 
pons of his leader, those light arrows feathered with wit, but tipped 
with the fatal poison for the darklings—truth—were those also which 
More excelled in handling. Indeed, in the opinion of Dean Colet, 
he was the only real wit of his time in England ; and he used his 
power unsparingly against the owls and bats who had so long held 
undisturbed reign in the schools. 

The friendship, cemented by so many kindred qualities, grew with 
years. On Erasmus’ second visit to England, enriched with wider 
knowledge, and laden with laurels, More’s house was his home ; and 
it was here that he wrote his famous satire on the Monks—“ Moria, 
or The Praise of Folly." In 1515, being sent by the King on a com¬ 
mercial embassy to the Netherlands, Sir Thomas had the pleasure of 
doing his friend a very good service in reference to this book, as well 
as in another respect, of still more importance to the interests of relig¬ 
ion. Through Erasmus, whom he met at Bruges, and other distin¬ 
guished literati of the Low Countries, he was made acquainted, more 
fully than he could be in England, with the hostility which all of them 


THE NEW ANTAGONIST. 


IO9 


— but especially Erasmus—had to encounter from the enemies of 
liberal learning. At this time the contest raged mainly round two 
points—his Mona, whose biting satire had deeply wounded the self- 
love of the lower clergy, against whom it was particularly directed ; 
and his projected publication of the Greek New Testament from 
manuscripts, with a new Latin translation. 

The Theological Faculty of the University of Louvain,* took it 
upon themselves, in a special manner, to frown on these irreverent 
and sacrilegious proceedings ; even decrying, with the utmost fury, 
the study of the Greek language, as not only useless, but in the highest 
degree pernicious to theologians. One of their number, Martin Dor- 
pius by name, a respectable Latin scholar, and a well-disposed man— 
but with conservative tendencies, which led him to take alarm at 
everything new—had assailed the labors of Erasmus in a published 
letter, severely censuring the Moria , but, above all, the proposed 
New Testament. This, as an innovation tending to weaken the 
authority of tradition, he deprecated as full of peril to the interests of 
religion. The temperate reply of Erasmus was followed by another 
letter from Dorpius, reiterating his previous charges. By this time 
Erasmus was at Basle, fully occupied with printing his New Testa¬ 
ment, and More felt himself called on to take up the pen in his de¬ 
fence. He addressed a letter to Dorpius, in which he vindicated the 
propriety of thus exposing the faults of the clergy, and fully justified 
the efforts of his friend to promote the study of the Scriptures. Dor¬ 
pius had said, that the theologian has more important and more diffi¬ 
cult things on his hands than the explanation of the Bible! More 
wishes him joy, that a book in which Jerome and Augustine found 
so much which was difficult, should all be so plain and easy to him ; 
yet wonders much that he could place the hair-splitting questions, 
arbitrary distinctions, and stupid repetitions of Peter Lombard’s Sen¬ 
tences, and similar works, in a higher rank than the study of the 
Bible. So convincingly, yet in so kind a spirit, did he combat the 
alleged necessity and obligation of adhering to the Vulgate, as sole 
and supreme authority, and plead for a thorough knowledge of Greek? 
as the only reliable basis of New Testament interpretation, that Dor¬ 
pius was wholly brought over to his views. He immediately devoted 
himself with such ardor to the study of Greek, and took part so de¬ 
cidedly with the friends of liberal learning, that his colleagues turned 
all their vengeance on him as an apostate from their ranks, and never 
rested till they drove him from the Professor’s chair. 


* Founded in 1426 ; in the 16th century it had 6000 students. 


IIO 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Two years after, 1517, Sir Thomas More surprised the literary 
world by his philosophical romance, Utopia ; a splendid blossom of 
genius and culture, but deriving its chief interest to us from its views 
of various matters connected with religion, especially of religious 
toleration and the rights of conscience. A few of the most noticeable 
points only can be mentioned. 

The citizens of The Happy Republic, with few exceptions, be¬ 
lieve in an infinite, incomprehensible, everywhere present Being, 
whom they call Father ; but from this centre they diverge into many 
varieties of religious belief. It is one of their fundamental laws that 
‘ ‘ each man can live according to his own religion, and that no violence be 
used to convert him to another faith.” For they think it unseemly and 
arrogant to attempt to force on all what one may happen to esteem 
as true ; and if there is but one true religion, it must, in due time, by 
the aid of reason and gentleness in its advocates, win the victory by 
its own inherent power. Christianity found easy access among this 
people ; and the adherents of the old faith neither sought to deter 
any from becoming its converts, or persecuted them afterward. Only 
when a new proselyte was so excessive and denunciatory in his zeal as 
to endanger the public peace, he was exiled, without farther punish¬ 
ment, from Utopia. Disbelievers in the immortality of the soul, and 
in a future state of rewards and punishments, were alone disfran¬ 
chised on account of their opinions, being counted as brutes, incapa¬ 
ble of being influenced by the motives necessary to constitute a u-seful 
or safe citizen. Yet even these were not punished with death, nor 
terrified by threats into hypocrisy ; and the priests and fathers of the 
community sought, by argument and reason, to cure them of their 
folly. 

The organization of the priesthood in the republic furnishes oppor¬ 
tunity for many significant hints at abuses in the Romish Church. 
The priests of Utopia are few in number, only thirteen in each city ; 
they are chosen by the people from the worthiest in the land—of the 
good, the best—and that there may be no constraint in the matter, by 
secret vote. Public opinion demands of them the greatest sanctity of 
character, which, however, is not deemed incompatible with mar¬ 
riage. They conduct the public worship and exercise the office of 
censors of morals, with no power, however, except to counsel and 
admonish. They hold no civil office. In case of war a deputation of 
priests accompanies the army, their business being to fray— first, for 
peace, second, for a bloodless victory to their countrymen. They 
have the charge of education, and the result of their capacity and 
fidelity is universal intelligence and mental activity. The youth of 



THE NEW ANTAGONIST. 


111 

Utopia are thoroughly grounded by them, first in good morals and 
religion, then in the principles of their government, in music, logic, 
mathematical science, astronomy, and in the Greek language and 
literature. All instruction is given in the mother tongue. 

A recent Catholic biographer of Sir Thomas More,* anxious for the 
consistency of this great champion of the Church, maintains that the 
Utopia is to be regarded as simply a work of pleasantry and fancy, 
not intended as an exposition of his real views, either on government 
or religion. But it is not usual to write even a work of fancy for the 
express purpose of commending principles exactly the opposite of 
those which the author approves ; especially when the application to 
the circumstances of the time is so unavoidable as in the Utopia. 
Taken, moreover, in connection with his previous relations, no room 
is left to doubt that, at this period, he recognized the need at many 
points of a reform in the existing Church, and that he was the advo¬ 
cate of universal religious toleration. 

Such had been the general character and course of this distin- - 
guished man till past his fortieth year.f On what grounds he could 
appear as the antagonist of Tyndale, why he did not rather welcome 
the honest efforts of the reformer, and join hand in hand with him to 
promote the progress of intelligence and religion, must have been a 
matter of query to many at that day. But however that was to be 
explained, at least candor, justice, and philosophic liberality in the 
treatment of his opponents, might be confidently expected of Sir 
Thomas More. 

* Rudhait, Thomas Moms, Augsburg, 1852. To this interesting work I am 
indebted for the materials of the foregoing chapter. 

f The year of his birth cannot be exactly ascertained ; but from the manner in 
which both he and Tyndale refer to his age in their controversy, it is evident that 
he must have been considerably the senior, and that the statement in the text is 
within bounds. 


t 





CHAPTER XVII. 


THE REFORMER TRANSFORMED. 

There are many examples of the theoretical reformer, converted 
by the practical experience of life into the most rigid of conservatives. 
Seldom, indeed, is so strange a transformation witnessed, as that now 
to be presented in the case of Sir Thomas More. But his own writ¬ 
ings furnish a sufficient solution of the problem, and show that the 
process was perfectly natural, by which the advocate of freedom and 
progress became the champion of a Church which repudiates progress, 
and denies even the right to think ; the opposer of faithful transla¬ 
tions of the Bible, and of their free use among the people ; and the 
intolerant, bloody persecutor. The case is one full of instruction to 
those in every age, who think to secure the peace of society, and the 
permanence of existing institutions, by shutting out the light of truth 
from the common mind. It is a service perilous alike to principles 
and to reputation. 

During the eleven years which had elapsed since the Utopia saw 
the light, great changes had been witnessed in Europe, which threat¬ 
ened in their onward progress to subvert the ancient religious institu¬ 
tions of all Christendom. Before 1517, the name of Luther had 
scarcely been heard of out of Wittenberg. Now, some of the most 
important states of Europe had renounced their connection with 
Rome and openly embraced his doctrines ; nor was the utmost vigi¬ 
lance of the still Catholic governments sufficient to exclude the influ¬ 
ence. Under the name of Protestantism, a vast religious and 
political organization, full of youthful energy and sustained by the 
convictions of the people, disputed with the Papacy for the control of 
Christendom. 

It cannot be doubted that Sir Thomas More had desired reforms in 
the Church. He may even have regretted that the social and relig¬ 
ious system of Christendom had not been originally constructed on 
more equitable principles. He was willing, we may believe, that 
various faiths should be tolerated, under strict subordinacy to the 
state religion. But a Reformation like that which he now saw sweep¬ 
ing over Europe and invading England was not what he had wished. 
Like Erasmus, he was terrified at the storm which he had himself 


1 14 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


helped to raise, and would fain unsay the spell and exorcise the 
unruly elements into their ancient peace. 

To this was added another consideration. The popular agitations 
which followed the establishment of Protestantism in Germany were 
ascribed by Catholics, no doubt by many very sincerely, to the influ¬ 
ence of the new religion ; which, by removing the old restraints, and 
inculcating freedom of conscience and freedom of thought among all 
classes, had implanted in the lower orders the spirit of misrule and 
discontent, to end in tumult, insurrection and revolution. 

It was under the lively apprehension of similar results in England, 
that the cautious statesman entered the lists as the champion of the 
ancient faith. He could not, or would not, understand that Tyndale 
and his fellow reformers had no connection with Luther, and sought 
no political ends. Nor was this, in truth, a matter of much conse¬ 
quence. He saw in their fundamental principles causes which must 
work out, substantially, the same effects, and which, while undermin¬ 
ing the old fabric of religion, could not' but endanger the secular gov¬ 
ernment with which it was so vitally connected. He fancied Eng¬ 
land already in a blaze with the incendiary fires of Lutherans, lawless¬ 
ness and riot everywhere in the ascendant, and all the goodly frame¬ 
work of society which it had taken centuries to build up, involved in 
general ruin. Much in the existing institutions might be unjust and 
oppressive, but no settled order of things could, in his view, be so 
bad as a revolution. 

But the mainspring of his zeal, the motive which furnished its most 
powerful impulse, and dipped his pen in gall and wormwood, is to be 
found in something more personal to himself, namely, in his own 
inward religious history. The distinguishing doctrine of the Refor¬ 
mation, justification by faith alone , was the object of his deepest aver¬ 
sion. With all his intelligence, Sir Thomas More could not rise 
above the belief that the hair shirt which he wore next his skin, the 
frequent fastings, vigils, and flagellations with which he afflicted his 
body, were offerings acceptable to the God of love. The strong 
religious tendencies which early in life had inspired the wish to 
become a monk,* and the deep conviction of his own infirmities 
which had led him to relinquish it as a matter of conscience, had only 
strengthened with years. To stand well in the sight of God, and, as 
the necessary means thereto, to train his sinful nature into entire sub¬ 
jection to the divine law, was undoubtedly the first object of his life. 
But the unconscious pride which led him to reject the unbought 


* Rudhart, ch. ix. 



THE REFORMER TRANSFORMED. 


115 

righteousness of Christ as the full expiation for sin, made him the 
bond slave of superstition. He clung to the Church which promised 
him heaven as the reward for his deeds, with all the tenacity of the 
Pharisee to his ancient ritual. The faith which took its starting-point 
from the opposite principle, he hated with an intensity proportioned 
to the violence of the conflict in his own bosom. A more striking 
parallel to the early history of Paul can scarcely be found, than is 
furnished in the religious career of this great man. Both, striving 
with all the earnestness of high and powerful natures, to win heaven 
by fulfilling “ every jot and tittle of the law,” became, through that 
very aim, the bitterest persecutors of those who brought glad tidings 
of grace and truth to man. Among all those who pursued, to prison 
and to death, the flock of Christ in England in the 16th century, Sir 
Thomas More must be allowed the first place in cruel and unrelenting 
intolerance ; and the cause is, in part at least, that in him as in Saul 
of Tarsus, a nobler character was perverted, by false doctrine and 
party zeal, into a tool of bigotry and despotism. Certainly it would 
be hard to find a more lamentable exhibition of their corrupting influ¬ 
ence than this controversy with Tyndale. We cannot but believe, 
many times, that his furious exasperation of manner is due as much 
to the convictions on which he is obliged to trample as to a sincere 
zeal for the cause he advocates ; while ever and anon, in the midst 
of serious argument, there gleams out a reckless, mocking spirit, 
between profanity and jest, which makes us doubt whether he has 
not, in the process, undermined his own confidence in all religion ; 
and if his faith has survived, whether he has not lost his honesty. 
To such a height of absurdity does he sometimes rise, that it is 
impossible not to feel that he is laughing at the arguments with which 
he is seeking to convince the undiscerning rabble. Worse than all is 
the debased moral tone of these writings, the ridiculous tales, inde¬ 
cent jests, and Billingsgate abuse which deform his pages, indicating 
far more the design to win the people to his party by catering to their 
degraded tastes, than to infuse into them the elevating influences of 
truth and virtue. Well did he deserve the rebuke of Tyndale, who, 
in his reply to the “ Dyaloge,” makes the single remark on one chap¬ 
ter of unmitigated grossness : “ This chapter is worthy of the author 
and of his worshipful doctrine .” In noble contrast stand Tyndale’s 
own writings for the people ; whose pure, honest, earnest pages are 
sufficient witness that their author sought to gain his readers for no 
party, but to restore the reign of God. the dominion of holiness and 
of the love of Christ in their hearts. 

License to read the books of Tyndale, for the purpose of refuting 


ii 6 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


them, was granted to Sir Thomas More by the Bishop of London,* 
in March, 1528 ; but the first division of his work did not appear till 
the summer of the following year, though he had, as he informs the 
reader, labored at it night and day.” It was a folio of two hun¬ 
dred and fifty pages, the title of which was set forth, with all due 
pomp and circumstance, as follows : ‘‘A Dyaloge of Syr Thomas 
More, Knyghte : One of the Counsaill of our Sovereign Lord the 
Kinge, and Chancelloure of his Duchy of Lancaster. Wherein be 
treated divers matters, as of the veneracyon and worship of images 
and reliques, praying to sayntes and goyinge on pilgrimage. Wyth 
many other thynges touching the pestylente secte of Luther and Tyn- 
dale, by the tone begun in Saxony, and by the tother labored to be 
brought into England.” The controversy extended through the 
years 1529-1533. Sir Thomas More’s part filled several folio volumes. 
A considerable portion of it appeared under the imposing name of the 
“ Chancelloure of England to the remainder he dedicated the year 
which followed his resignation of the Great Seal. Besides the works 
directed against Tyndale by name, the “ Supplication of Soules,” in 
reply to Fyshe’s Supplication of Beggars ; the “ Confutation of Frere 
Barnes’ Church,” and others which likewise came from his busy pen 
during this period, belong to the same general subject, and together 
form a very complete view of the doctrines and policy of the Romish 
Church, by one of its ablest defenders. 

These English writings, it should be borne in mind, were for the 
people, and were intended to counteract those of Tyndale and his fel¬ 
low-reformers. What then was the process by which the end was 
sought ? and what, if successful, must have been the influence on the 
condition and prospects of the English people ? 

The fundamental principle of the new advocate, with which his 
whole theory stood or fell, was the infallibility of the Church of Rome 
—The most holy Catholic Church cannot err. How is this 
proved ? Primarily, by Scripture, which, in this point is supreme 
and absolute authority. Christ promised Peter that his faith should 
not fail. But Peter’s faith did fail ; therefore, this must have been 
addressed to him, not as an individual, but as the representative Head 
of the Church ; since otherwise, Christ is made untrue to his word. 
Likewise to all his Apostles, as the representatives of the Church, he 
promised that the Holy Ghost should be with them and in them ; 
“ the Comforter shall teach you all things “he that heareth you, 

* What a picture of the mental bondage in which England was then held, is 
disclosed by this single fact. A man like Sir Thomas More, obliged to ask leave 
of the bishop to read the works of Tyndale ! 



THE REFORMER TRANSFORMED. 


II 7 


heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me ; and lo ! I am 
with you alway, even to the end of the world.” And Christ also 
directed, that if any would not hear the Church, he should be 
accounted a heathen man and a publican.—But what Church is this, 
and how is it to be known ? “It is,” says More, “ the common 
known body of all Christian realms remaining in the faith of Christ, 
not fallen off, nor cut off with heresies.” “The very Church of 
Christ here in earth, which hath the right faith, and which we be 
bounden to believe and obey, is this universal known people of all 
Christian nations, that be neither put out, nor openly departed out, 
by their willful schisms and plainly professed heresies.” “ The Cath¬ 
olic Church is God’s perpetual apostle, however nations soever fall 
therefrom, and how little and small soever it be left.” “ I said, and 
yet say, that these words of our Saviour Christ, ‘ Whoso heareth 
you, heareth me,’ were no more proper commandment to bind any 
man to believe the apostles, than to believe the whole Catholic 
Church, and general councils that represent that whole body of the 
Catholic Church ; and that they were not spoken to the apostles only, 
no more than the Holy Ghost was promised to be sent to the apostles 
only.”*—That this is the apostolic, and therefore infallible Church, is 
proved by miracles which God has wrought through her, from the 
time of Christ down to the present. “ And this is, therefore, the way 
that God hath taken from the beginning ; that is, to wit, he hath 
joined his word with wonderful works, to make his word perceived 
for his own. Thus did he in every age before the coming of Christ. 
Thus did he in Christ himself, whose words he proved by his wonder¬ 
ful works. . . . Thus did he also by his blessed apostles, whose 

doctrines he confirmed by miracles. And thus hath he done ever 
since. ”f “And now, in such things as God seeth most need, and 
the hereticks most busy to assault, there doth he most specially fence 

in his Church with miracles.He hath wrought, and daily 

doth many wonderful miracles, and the like of those that he wrought 
in the time of his apostles, to show and make proof that his Catholic 
Church is his perpetual apostle, how many nations soever fall there¬ 
from, and how small soever it be left,' ’ J—“ Our Saviour saith that his 
own miracles passed all that had been before, and that yet his apostles 
and disciples and faithful-believing folk should do as great and greater. 
And we see in the Catholic Church God hath done, and daily doth 
for his saints. . . as great miracles in confirmation of our faith in 

that behalf, as ever he did in the time of the apostles. The false 


* Confutation of Tyndale, p. 504. 


f Ibid. 


\ Ibid., p. 449. 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


118 

churches of heretics do no miracle. . . . But God worketh his 

miracles in his true Church, to shew his true Church, that is to wit, 
his true apostle.”*—The genuineness of these modern miracles, on 
which so much is made to depend, is argued through several chapters 
of the Dialogue, in a manner which, for the credit of the distinguished 
author’s sincerity, we trust was more satisfactory to him than it is to 
his readers at the present day. The instances which he adduces 
make a heavy draught on our faith in his honesty. One of these, to 
which he professes to have been an eye-witness, must suffice as a 
specimen. 

“ And myself saw, at the Abbey of Barking, beside London, to my 
remembrance about thirty years past, in the setting an old image in a 
new tabernacle, the back of which image being painted over, and of 
long time before laid with beaten gold, happened to crack in one place, 
and out there fell a pretty little door, at which fell out, also, many 
relics, that had lien unknown in that image God wot how long. And 
as long had been likely to be again, if God by that chance had not 
brought them to light. The Bishop of London then came thither to 
see there were no deceit therein. And I, among others, was present 
there while he looked thereon and examined the matter. And in good 
faith, it was a marvel to me to behold the manner of it. I have for¬ 
gotten much thereof, but I remember a little piece of wood there was, 
rudely shaped in cross, with thread wrapped about it. Writing had it 
none, and what it was we could not tell ; but it seemed as newly cut as 
if it hadtbeen done within one day before ! And divers relics had old 
writings on them, and some had none. But among other, were cer¬ 
tain small kerchiefs which were named there Our Lady’s, and of her 
own working. Coarse were they not, nor were they not large, but 
served as it seemed, to cast in a plain and simple manner on her head. 
But surely they were as clean seams to my seeming as ever I saw in my 
life, and were therewith as white, for all the long lying, as if they had 
been washed and laid up within one hour ! And how long that image 
had stood in that old tabernacle, that could no man tell ; but there 
had, in all the church, none as they thought stood longer untouched. 
And they guessed, that four or five hundred years ago, the image was 
hidden when the abbey was burned by infidels, and those relics hidden 
therein ; afterward, the image was found and set up many years after, 
when they were gone that hid it. And so the relics remained un¬ 
known therein, till now that God gave that chance that opened it.”f 

That this is the true Church is attested also by the common con- 

* 


* Confutation, p. 449. 


f Dialogue, p. 192. 



THE REFORMER TRANSFORMED. 


19 


sent of the “ old holy doctors,” who, having proved their saintship 
by indubitable miracles, testify in their writings that this is the very 
true Church. “ The miracles and consent of these holy doctors, do 
prove that this must needs be the very true Church in which they 
have written, and their miracles have been done.” 

The essential point being satisfactorily established—that the Catho¬ 
lic Church is the true Church, which being continually pervaded by 
the fullness of divine influence, cannot err—the way is prepared for 
exalting her teachings above those of the written Word. Provision is 
thus made for all those doctrines and usages in the Church, which 
are not commanded by Scripture ; or are, by all ordinary rules of in¬ 
terpretation, even in direct contrariety to it. By establishing the 
authority of the Church, it has made itself superfluous. The unwrit¬ 
ten word—that is, the traditions taught by the apostles, and handed 
down from age to age, and the new teachings of the Church itself in 
successive periods, through her general councils—are of equal 
authority with the written word. Several of these he enumerates, in 
a passage of the “ Confutation,” as follows : 

“ By these traditions have we the praying to saints, and the knowl¬ 
edge that they pray for us. By these traditions have we the holy 
Lenten fast. ... By these have we also the Saturday changed 
into Sunday. ... By these have we the hallowing of chalices, 
vestments, paschal taper, and holy water, with divers other things. 
By these traditions of that Holy Spirit, hath the Church also the 
knowledge how to consecrate, how to say Mass, and what thing to 
pray for and to desire therein. By this have we also the knowledge to 
do reverence to the images of holy saints, and of our Saviour, and to 
creep to his cross, and to do divine honor unto the blessed sacra¬ 
ment of the altar.” And these are things not merely true in them¬ 
selves ; the belief of them is necessary to salvation. For if the 
Church, in teaching the worship of saints, of images, relics, and the 
host, teaches what is false, she teaches damnable idolatry ; to dis¬ 
believe it, therefore, if true, is damnable error and heresy. To judge 
from the earnestness with which he contends for these ‘‘unwritten 
verities,” they were of far more moment in his eyes than those? 
revealed in Scripture. Such frantic zeal in defence of the worship of 
saints and relics can hardly be accounted for in such a man, except 
on the supposition that he saw in these the stronghold of the Church 
with the populace. So anxious was he to present the holy fabric 
without a flaw to the common eye, as to defend the superstition of pray¬ 
ing to St. Loy for sick horses, and St. Appoline in the toothache, and. 
St. Sythe for lost keys ; and of the offering by discontented .wiyes^oi 


120 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


pecks of oats to St. Wilgefort, to rid them of their husbands—hence, 
called by them St. Uncumber. He gravely accounts also for the 
fact, that the head of John the Baptist is enshrined in more than one 
place, and in general, that the bones of the saints are so singularly 
multiplied in Christendom ; and proves that under the inspired 
guardianship of the Church there can be no serious mistake. Nay, 
so meritorious and so necessary is the reverence of relics, that if, by 
chance, a pig’s bones were worshipped as those of a saint, the service 
would be far more acceptable to God than the profane rejection of 
the whole doctrine by heretics.* 

But how if these teachings seem to contradict the plain language 
of the Scriptures ? The remedy is easy. The Church which cannot 
err is the constituted expounder of the written word. “ She has the 
assistance of God and the Holy Ghost. For else might the Church 
be most easily beguiled in the very receiving of Scripture, wherein 
they take outwardly but the testimony of men from mouth to mouth, 
and hand to hand, without other examination. But that secret means 
that inclineth their credulity to consent in the believing all in one 
point, which is the secret instinct of God , this is the sure mean that 
never can, in any necessary point, fail in Christ’s Church.” “ Worst 
of all wretches shall he walk, who cometh to the Scripture of God to 
try whether the Church believe right or not. For either doubteth he 
whether Christ teach his Church true, or whether Christ teacheth it 
at all or not. And then he doubteth whether Christ in his words 
said true, when he said he would be with his Church to the end of 
the world.” 

He particularly cautions theological students against the dangerous 
practice, to which so many of them were then inclined, of “ giving 
themselves to the study of Scripture alone, with contempt of logic and 
other secular sciences, and little regard to the old interpreters” ; and 
tells a sad story of some who had thus come to a very bad end. 
” For the sure avoiding whereof,” he continues, ” my poor advice 
were, in the study thereof, to have a special regard to the writings and 
comments of the old holy fathers. And yet, or he fall in hand with 
the one or the other, next to grace and help of God to be got with 
abstinence and prayer and clean living, afore all things were it neces¬ 
sary to come well and surely instructed in all such points and articles 
as the Church believeth.” ” Finally, if all he can find in other men’s 
works, or invent by God’s aid of his own study, cannot suffice to sat¬ 
isfy, but that any text yet seem contrary to any point of the Church’s 


* Dialogue, 2d Book. 


THE REFORMER TRANSFORMED. 


121 


faith and belief, let him then, as St. Augustine saith, make himself 
very sure that there is some fault, either in the translator or in the 
writer [copyist], or now-a-days in the printer ; or finally, that for 
some let or other, he understandeth it not aright. And so let him 
reverently knowledge his ignorance, lean and cleave to the faith of the 
Church as an undoubted truth, leaving that text to be better per¬ 
ceived when it shall please our Lord, with his light, to reveal and 
disclose it. ’ * 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


SHALL THE PEOPLE HAVE THE BIBLE ? 

But the central point of interest in this controversy was the subject 
of vernacular translations of the Bible. Of these the Lord Chancellor 
professed himself a warm advocate. Nothing, in his view, could so 
conduce to the growth of piety and good morals among the people, as 
the Holy Scriptures faithfully translated into their mother tongue. 
To argue against this was to reflect on “ the holy writers that wrote 
the Scriptures in the Hebrew tongue, and against the blessed evangel¬ 
ists that wrote the Scripture in Greek, and against all those in like¬ 
wise that translated it out of every of those tongues into Latin” ; for 
these were all written in what was, at the time, the vulgar tongue. 
To deny it to the unlearned in English, required also that it should 
be denied in the Latin to the laity and to the great body of the priest¬ 
hood also, who were as incompetent to understand “ hard and doubt¬ 
ful texts’* in the vulgate, as the very women to do so in their own 
language. Nor did the objection that many would abuse the privi¬ 
lege to their own destruction, seem to him a sufficient reason for with¬ 
holding it from all. “ If any good thing will go forward, somewhat,” 
he says, “must be adventured.” “To keep the whole commodity 
from any whole people, because of harm that by their own folly and 
fault may come to some part, were as though a lewd surgeon would 
cut off the leg by the knee, to keep the toe from the gout, or cut off a 
man’s head by the shoulders to keep him from the toothache.” “ I 
would not, for my mind, withhold the profit that any one good, de¬ 
vout, unlearned layman might take by the reading, not for the harm 
that an hundred heretics would fall in by their own willful abusion.”* 

In regard to the principle of the thing, it appears, therefore, that Sir 
Thomas was entirely one with the reformers. He could illustrate it 
as forcibly, and plead for it as earnestly, as the most zealous of them 
all. The only difference between them was on the practical appli¬ 
cation of the principle in which he and they alike were agreed. 

When we come to the practical application, however, this difference 
is found to be a somewhat serious matter, involving no less than the 
whole question : “ Shall the people have the Bible ?” 


* Dialogue, 3d Book. 


SHALL THE PEOPLE HAVE THE BIBLE? 


123 


In the first place, though Sir Thomas More was fully in favor ot the 
Bible for the people, it was not as a matter of necessity, nor as their 
right. Nor did he plead for the whole Bible to be given to the whole 
people. Who should receive it, and how much, was at the discretion 
of their spiritual guides. He proposes the following plan for obviat¬ 
ing the mischief apprehended by many learned and pious prelates, 
from the Scriptures in the mother tongue. “ Let a translation be 
made by some good Catholic and well-learned man, or by divers 
dividing the labor among them, and the work then allowed and 
approved by the ordinaries, and by their authority put to print, all 
the copies then to come whole into the bishop’s hands, which he may 
after his discretion and wisdom deliver to such as he perceiveth hon¬ 
est, sad, and virtuous, with a good monition and fatherly counsel to 
use it reverently, with humble heart and lowly mind, rather seeking 
therein occasion of devotion than despicion. And providing as much 
as may be that the book be, after the decease of the party, brought 
again and reverently restored unto the ordinary. So that, as near as 
may be devised, no man have it but of the ordinaries’ hands, and by 
him thought and reputed for such as shall be likely to use it for God’s 
glory and the merit of his own soul. Among whom, if any be proved 
after to have abused it, the use thereof to be forbidden him either 
forever, or till he wax wiser.” “ Though it were not taken to every 
lewd lad in his own hands, to read a little rudely when he list, and 
then cast the book at his heels, or among other such as himself to 
keep a quodlibet or a pot parliament upon, I trow there will no wise 
man find a fault therein.” “ Though it may, therefore [on account 
of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church], be the better 
suffered that no part of Scripture were kept out of honest laymen’s 
hands, yet would I that no part thereof should come into theirs, 
which, to their own harm, and haply their neighbor’s too, would han¬ 
dle it over-homely, and be too bold and busy therewith. And 
although Holy Scripture be a medicine for the sick and food for him 
that is whole, yet, since there is many a body sore and soul-sick that 
taketh himself for whole, and in Holy Scripture is a whole feast of so 
much divers viand, that after the affection and state of sundry stom¬ 
achs, one may take harm by that self same that shall do another 
good, and sick folk often have such a corrupt tallage in their taste 
that they most like the meat that is most unwholesome for them, it 
were not therefore, as me thinketh, unreasonable that the ordinary, 
whom God hath, in the dioceses, appointed for the chief physician to 
discern between the whole and the sick, and between disease and dis¬ 
ease, should after his wisdom and discretion, appoint everybody their 


124 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


part as he should perceive to be good and wholesome for them. 
And, therefore, as he should not fail to find many a man to whom 
he might commit all the whole ; so, to say the truth, I can see no 
harm therein, though he should commit unto some men the Gospel of 
Matthew, Mark, or Luke, whom he should yet forbid the Gospel of 
John ; and suffer some to read the Acts of the Apostles whom he 
would not suffer to meddle with the Apocalypse. Many were theVe, 
I think, should take much profit by St. Paul’s Epistle ad Ephesios , and 
yet should find little fruit for their understanding in the Epistle ad Rom¬ 
anos. And in likewise would it be in divers other parts of the Bible as 
well in the Old Testament as in the New ; so that I say, though the 
bishop might, unto some laymen, betake and commit, with good 
advice and instruction, the whole Bible to read ; yet might he to 
some man well and with reason restrain the reading of some part, and 
from some busy-body the meddling with any part at all, more than 
he shall hear in sermons set out. and declared unto him ; and in like¬ 
wise to take away the Bible from such folk again as be proved by their 
blind presumption to abuse the occasion of their profit unto their own 
hurt and harm.” 

At the conclusion he modestly suggests, with all deference to more 
wise and learned judges, that he would not himself fear to try the 
experiment of permitting the Scriptures to go freely among the peo¬ 
ple. But as the controversy progressed, not so much to his own 
credit as had been anticipated, he seems to have grown much more 
dubious on this point. In the 44 Confutation,” written two or three 
years later, 1532, he argues against having the church service in Eng¬ 
lish, 44 which,” he says, 44 what it would do here God kjioweth ! But 
as for Allmain (Germany), there as it is so already we see well 
enough that it doeth no great good there.” In the 44 Apology,” writ¬ 
ten in 1533, he seems quite weaned from the plan which had once been 
so near his heart. 44 The people,” he asserts, 44 may have every 
necessary truth of Scripture, and everything necessary for them to 
know concerning the salvation of their souls, truly taught and 
preached unto them ; though the corps and body of the Scripture be 
not translated unto them in their mother tongue. For else had it 
been wrong with English people, from the faith first brought into this 
realm unto our own day, in all which time before, I am sure that 
every English man and woman that could read it, had not a book by 
them of the Scripture in English. And yet is there, I doubt not, of 
those folk many a good soul saved. And secondly, also, if the having 
of the Scripture in English be a thing so requisite, of precise neces¬ 
sity, that the people’s souls should needs perish but if they have it 


SHALL THE PEOPLE HAVE THE BIBLE? 


125 

translated into their own tongue ; then must the most part perish for 
all that, except the preacher make farther provision beside, that all 
the people shall be able to read it when they have it, of which people 
far more than four parts of all the whole divided into ten could never 
read English yet, and many now too old to begin to go to school, and 
shall, with God’s grace, though they read never word of Scripture, 

come to heaven as well.Many have thought it a 

thing very good and profitable that the Scripture, well and truly 
translated, should be in the English tongue. And albeit that many 
right wise and well learned both, and very virtuous folk also, both 
have been and yet are in a far other mind ; yet for mine own part, I 
both have been, and yet am also of the same opinion still, as I have 
in my Dialogue declared, if the men were amended and the time tneet 
therefor /” 

In the second place, there seemed to be insuperable difficulties in 
the way of obtaining such a translation as might safely be trusted in 
the people’s hands. There was a tradition of an ancient orthodox 
version made known before Wickliffe’s ;* but where to find it, or how 
to distinguish it from that seditious and prohibited translation, no 
man could tell. When moreover, the pious Chancellor reflects, that 
all through these two hundred years, during which the holy Catholic 
Church has possessed so many learned and virtuous doctors, not one 

* In reference to this alleged version, Tyndale replies : “ What may not Mr. 
More say by authority of his poetry ? There is a lawful translation that no man 
knoweth, which is as much as no lawful translation. Why might not the 
bishops show which were that lawful translation, and let it be printed ? Nay 
if that might have been obtained of them with large money, it had been printed, 
ye may be sure, long ere this. But, Sir, answer me hereunto ; how happeneth 
that ye defenders translate noC one yourselves to cease the murmur of the peo¬ 
ple, and put to your own glosses, to prevent heretics? You would no doubt 
have done it, long since, if ye could have made your glosses agree with the text 
in every place.” He adds a serious charge against Sir Thomas More’s sin¬ 
cerity. “ And what can you say to this, how that besides they have done their 
best to disannul all translating by parliament, they have disputed before the kings’ 
grace that it is perilous and not meet, and so concluded that it shall not be, under 
a pretence of deferring it for certain years ; where Mr. More was their special 
orator, to feign lies for their purpose.” A ns. to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue , 
vol. ii., p. 175. This is, without doubt, the interview mentioned by More him¬ 
self (Confutation, p. 422) : “ The king’s highness, and not without the counsel 
and advice, not of his nobles only with other counsellors attending on his grace’s 
person, [most of them ecclesiastics,] but also of right virtuous and special right 
well learned men of either university, and other parties of the realm specially 
called thereunto, hath, after diligent and long consideration had therein, been 
fain, for the while , to prohibit the Scripture of God to be suffered in English 
tongue among the people’s hands.” 



126 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


of them has been moved by the Holy Spirit to undertake this work, 
he begins to be in doubt whether the wishes he has indulged are in 
harmony with the will of God. Heretics, alone, seemed to have 
their minds inclined to Bible translation. A New Testament, trans¬ 
lated out of the original Greek into clear and vigorous English, had 
already appeared, and had commended itself widely to the popular 
mind. It was the first effort of the kind by an English scholar ; and, 
as a literary work, might well have been an object of pride to English 
scholars. But, as the work of a heretic it must be prohibited, and 
wherever found, burned to ashes by the faithful guardians of the 
flock. Better far that the people should never have a Bible, than 
receive it from this poisoned source ! 

But, unfortunately, the notion had gone abroad among the people 
that these measure^ were attributable rather to personal and selfish 
considerations, than to any concern for their welfare. 

“ The visible contrariety between that book and the doctrines of 
those who handled it,” was the popular solution of their zeal for its 
suppression ; an opinion which did not tend to lessen their eagerness 
to read it, or their prejudices against the clergy. To counteract this 
impression, and to persuade the people to wait patiently till Provi¬ 
dence should send them a Bible, prepared by the right men on the 
right principles, More put forth all the power of his pen. 

He begins * with expressing his surprise, “ that any good Christian 
man having any drop of wit in his head,” should complain of the 
burning of Tyndale’s New Testament. Even to call it the New Tes¬ 
tament is a misnomer ; since, as he affirms, “ Tyndale had, after 
Luther’s counsel, so corrupted and changed it from the good and 
wholesome doctrine of Christ, to the devilish heresies of their own, 
that it was clean a contrary thing.” “ To tell all its faults, were in 
a manner to rehearse all the whole book, wherein there were found 
and noted wrong above a thousand texts by tale. To study to find 
one, were to study where to find water in the sea.” 

But when he condescends to specify some of these alleged errors, 
we see that the real gist of the difficulty lies within a nutshell. It 
was Tyndale’s principles of translation, as applied to certain ecclesiastical 
terms of the Rojnish Church , which formed the true ground of his con¬ 
demnation with the Lord Chancellor. Out of the multitude of mis¬ 
translations, he proposes to mention two or three, such as every one 
of the three is more than thrice three in one.” “ The one is this 
word, Priests j the other, the Church; the third, Charity^— trans- 


Dialogue, 3d Book, 8th chap. 


SHALL THE PEOPLE PIAVE THE BIBLE? 


127 


lated by Tyndale, seniors (afterward changed to elders ), congregation , 
love. To these he afterward adds several others—as favor for grace ; 
repentance for penance ; knowledging* for confessing. This may, at 
first, seem mere peevish caviling on the part of More ; as Coverdale 
said, “ like a quarrel as to the difference between fourpence and a 
groat.” But this is a mistaken view. These terms were the very 
pillars of the hierarchical system. In excluding them from his trans¬ 
lation, Tyndale had effaced from the English New Testament every¬ 
thing to which the Romish clergy could appeal, in proof of those pre¬ 
rogatives by which they had so long lorded it over the minds and con¬ 
sciences of the laity. The controversy beteen More and Tyndale, on 
these points, shows clearly that they both considered them vital ques¬ 
tions. The Lord Chancellor accuses his opponent, over and over, of 
“ going about by this means to make a change in the faith." “ Be¬ 
cause,” says he,f ‘‘that Luther utterly denieth the very Catholic 
Church in earth, and saith that the Church of Christ is but an 
unknown congregation of some folk, here two and there three, no 
man wot where, having the right faith, which he calleth only his own 
new forged faith ; therefore Huchyns [Tyndale] in the New Testa¬ 
ment, cannot abide the name of the Church, but turneth it into the 
name of congregation ; willing that it should seem to Englishmen, 
either that Christ, in the Gospel , had never spoketi of the Church , or 
else that the Church were but such a congregation, as they might have 
occasion to say that a congregation of some such heretics were the 
Church that God spake of.—Now, as touching the cause why he 
changed the name of priest into senior, ye must understand that 
Luther and his adherents hold this heresy, that holy order is nothing.\ 


* This word, as appears from many passages in More’s own writings, had the 
full force of our present form, acknowledging. 

f Dyaloge, p. 222. 

\ How much importance More attached to this point, is seen from other pas¬ 
sages, in which he speaks of the nature and efficacy of the priestly office. “ But 
Tyndale careth not how he set his words, so that he may make us to believe 
that we need no priest to offer up daily the same sacrifice that our Saviour offered 
once, and hath ordained to be by priests perpetually offered in his Church.” 
“ Nor would Tyndale have us for his pleasure, in hatred of the order of priest¬ 
hood, believe that the priest doth at the Mass make none offering of that holy 
sacrifice for sin. With which heresy he clean taketh away the very fruit of the 
Mass, in which that blessed sacrament is most honored of the people , and is also 
most profitable unto the people.”—Ans. to Tynd. Preface, p. 392. And be a 
priest never so nought, ... yet this advantage take we by the privilege and 
prerogative of his priesthood, . . . that be he never so vicious, and therewith so 
impenitent, and so far from all purpose of amendment, that his prayers were 
afore the face of God rejected and abhorred, yet that sacred sacrifice and sweet 


128 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


And that a priest is nothing else but a man chosen among the people 
to preach ; and by that choice to that office, he is priest by and by, 
without any more ado. . . . But as for saying Mass, and hearing 

of confession, and absolution thereon to be given ; all this, he saith, 
that every man, woman, and child may do as well as any priest.” 
“Ye may perceive that he thus used himself in his translation, to the 
intent that he would set forth Luther’s heresies and his own thereby. 
For first, he would make the people believe that we should believe 
nothing but plain Scripture, in which point he teacheth a plain, pesti¬ 
lent heresy. And then would he, with his false translation, make the 
people ween farther, that such articles of our faith as he laboreth to 
destroy, and which be well proved by Holy Scripture, were in Holy 
Scripture nothing spoken of ; but that the preachers have, all this fif¬ 
teen hundred year, misreported the Gospel, and Englished the ScriD- 
ture wrong, to lead the people purposely out of the right way.” 

Nor does Tyndale, in his reply to More, treat the mooted render¬ 
ings as a matter of indifference. “Wherefore,” he says, * “ inas¬ 
much as the clergy (as the nature of those hard and indurate adamant 
stones is to draw all to them), had appropriated unto themselves the 
term that of right is common to all the whole congregation of them 
that believe in Christ,f and with their false and subtle wiles, had 

oblation of Christ’s holy body, offered up by his office, can take none impairing 
by the filth of his sin, but highly helpeth to the upholding of this wretched world, 
from the vengeance and wrath of God, and is to God acceptable, and to us as 
available for the thing itself, as if it were offered by a better man.”—Dialogue, p. 
'226. And what is the sacrifice which the priest first creates, and then offers? 
Let More himself answer. It is “ that holy, blessed, glorious flesh and blood of 
Almighty God himself, with his celestial soul therein, and with the majesty of his 
eternal godhead.”— Treatise on the Passion , p. 1264. “ It is under the form and 

likeness of bread, the very self-same body and the very self-same blood, that died 
and was shed upon the cross for our sin, and the third day gloriously did rise 
again to life, and with the souls of holy saints fetched out of hell, ascended and 
styed [rose] up wonderfully into heaven, and there sitteth on the right hand of the 
Father, and shall visibly descend in great glory to judge the quick and the dead, 
and reward all men after to their works.”—lb. 1266. 

It was no false charge that Tyndale, in refusing to recognize this office in the 
English Testament, “ went about to make a change in the [Romish] faith.” 

* Tyndale’s Works, vol. ii., p. 14. 

f More foolishly cavils at this assertion of Tyndale, as if he had said that the 
laity were in no sense included in the Romish church. But he does not attempt 
to deny or evade, so patent was the fact, that whenever The Church was spoken 
of with the idea of power and authority, the clergy alone were included. When 
the Church was said to have decided on a doctrine, or a course of policy, or to 
have performed any high judicial act, it was understood of them alone ; the laiiy 
having no voice in spiritual matters. Through their courts, synods, and general 


SHALL THE PEOPLE HAVE THE BIBLE? 


129 


beguiled and mocked the people, and brought them into ignorance of 
the word ; making them understand by the word Church, nothing but 
the shaven flock of them that shore the whole w ! orld ; therefore, in 
the translation of the New Testament, where I found this word, eccle- 
sia y I interpreted it by this word, congregation." “ And that I use 
this word, knowledge , and not confession ; and this word, repentance y 
and not penance. In which all, he cannot prove that I gave not the 
right English unto the Greek word. But it is a far other thing that 
paineth them, and biteth them by the breasts. There be secret 
pangs that pinch the very hearts of them, whereof they dare not com¬ 
plain. The sickness that maketh them so impatient is, that they have 
lost their juggling terms."* “ So now the causes why our prelates 
thus rage, and that moveth them to call Mr. More to help is, not 
that they find just causes in the translation, but because they have lost 
their juggling and feigned terms, wherewith Peter prophesied they 
should make merchandise of the people. "\ 

Now Sir Thomas More did not pretend that Tyndale’s translation 
misrepresented, in these points, the original meaning of the words 
used in the Greek text. His position was this : The sacred writers 
did indeed, of necessity, use for the expression of Christian ideas, 
words taken from common life ; but they used them in a peculiar 
sense. Thus the Greek word presbyteros (translated by Tyndale 
senior, or elder), meant nothing more than this, until it was employed 
to designate an office in the Christian Church, to which were attached 
certain mystical functions and prerogatives. This mystical Christian 
idea is expressed in English by the word Priest ; and to substitute 
for it the literal rendering, senior or elder, while it is true to the 
words of Scripture, falsifies its sense. So ecclesia , which meant noth¬ 
ing, originally, but a congregation or assembly, of whatever kind, as 
by them applied to that mystical body of Christ, wherein he perpetually 
resides by his Spirit, and which is represented in English by the con¬ 
secrated word, Church. To translate ecclesia by the secular word, 
congregation, is therefore, to lose the inspired meaning. 

There is certainly something plausible in this view at first sight ; 
but it will not bear the touchstone of the foundation-principle of Pro¬ 
testantism for a single moment. Who was to settle the mystical 

councils—subject only to the Pope—they could at pleasure alter or abolish 
the laws of Christ, and institute (on pain of excommunication, chains and the 
stake), new articles of faith for the whole body. And this, by virtue of the 
authority delegated to St. Peter and his successors, was the voice of The 
Church. 

* Tyndale’s Works, vol. ii... p. 22. 


f Ibid, p. 24. 


130 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Christian sense of the words used by the sacred writers ? Sir 
Thomas had a ready answer, The Holy Catholic Church, which can¬ 
not err. Once admit that first great tenet, which he had so labored 
to establish, and all his inferences followed with the force of logical 
demonstration. Admit that, and it was proved without farther 
trouble, that a vernacular Bible should conform, in the principles of 
its translation, to whatever sense the Church, by its doctrines and 
usages, should have put upon the words of inspiration. 

But Tyndale had an altogether different notion of the office of a 
translator of the Scriptures. No man, and no body of men, might 
stand between him and the Sacred Oracles, of which he had under¬ 
taken to give a faithful reflection to his countrymen. “ I call God to 
record,” such is his solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts,— 

‘ against the day we shall appear before the Lord Jesus, to give a 
reckoning of our doings, that 1 never altered one syllable of God’s 
word against my conscience, nor would this day if all that is in the 
earth, whether it be pleasure, honor, or riches, might be given'me. ” 
Having diligently labored to ascertain the exact meaning of the sacred 
original, as it spoke to those whom it first addressed, it was his single 
aim to reproduce it in those words of his mother tongue which 
would give that meaning to the minds of his countrymen. He asked 
not whether the word were holy or profane. Any word was holy to 
him which conveyed truly and clearly the mind of the Holy Spirit. 
Sir Thomas More would have welcomed, at least so he professed, a 
vernacular Bible, if so translated as not to put in question with the 
common people the faith and practice of his Church. This he 
deemed a greater evil than to deprive them of the Scriptures. Tyn¬ 
dale believed that, whatever became of that Church or any other, 
God had a right to speak directly to the common people, and that the 
people had a right to hear him. It was this belief, and his honest, 
manly, Christian adherence to it, unmoved by fear or favor, which 
constituted him God’s special messenger to his age, to break the iron 
rule of priestcraft, and to usher in a new epoch of soul-liberty and 
pure religion. 

1 he persecuting spirit of the anti-Bible principle is well illustrated 
in that of its great champion. It being right to forbid the Scriptures 
to the people, it was right also to use all such means as might be 
necessary to prevent their obtaining them. It being right to keep the 
Scriptures out of their reach by laws temporal and spiritual, it was 
right, also, to affix such penalties to these laws as would insure obedi¬ 
ence. It is really appalling, as one turns over these long folios, 
betokening the author’s unwearied interest in his theme, to remark 


SHALL THE PEOPLE HAVE THE BIBLE? 


131 


how, from beginning to end, they hiss and sparkle with the fires of 
remorseless zealotism. The captions to a few chapters of the 
“ Dyalogue” indicate his position in regard to the treatment of those 
who, in this great matter, ventured to recognize a higher law than 
that of King Henry, or the Romish Bishops. Chapter thirteenth is 
headed thus : “ The author showeth his opinion concerning the burn¬ 
ing of heretics, and that it is lawful, necessary and well done ; and 
showeth also that the clergy doth not procure it, but only the good 
and politic provision of the temporality.”* Chapter fourteenth : 
“ The author somewhat showeth that the clergy doth no wrong in 
leaving heretics to secular hands, though their death follow thereon.” 
Chapter fifteenth : “ That princes be bound to punish heretics, and 
that fair handling helpeth but little with many of them.” Chapter 
eighteenth : “ The author showeth that in the condemnation of heret¬ 
ics the clergy might lawfully do much more sharply than they do ; 
and that, in deed and clearness, doth no more now against heretics 
than the apostle counselieth, and the old holy doctors did. Under 
the latter heading he instances the case mentioned in the Epistle to 
the Corinthians, of Hvmeneus and Alexander, whom Paul had de¬ 
livered unto Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme. In 
which words,” says More, “ we may learn that St. Paul, as apostle 
and spiritual governor in that country, finding them twain fallen from 
the faith of Christ, .... did cause the devil to torment and 
punish their bodies, which every man may well wit was no small pain, 
and, peradventure, not without death also. . . And this bodily 

punishment did St. Paul, as it appeareth, upon heretics ; so if the 
clergy did unto much more blasphemous heretics much more sorrow 
than St. Paul did to them, they should neither do it without good 
cause, nor without great authority and evident example of Christ’s 
blessed apostles. And surely when our Saviour himself called such 

heretics wolves in sheep’s cloth ng,.the prelates of 

Christ’s Church rather ought temporally to destroy those ravenous 
wolves, than suffer them to worry and devour everlastingly the flock 
that Christ hath committed unto their care.” He praises also the 

* This dishonest evasion was unworthy of Sir Thomas More. “ As though, 
says Tyndale, in his answer, (vol. ii., p. 222), “ the Pope had not first found the 
law, and as though all his preachers babbled not that in every sermon, Burn 
these heretics, burn them, for we have no other argument to convince them ; 
and as though they compelled not both king and emperor to swear that they shall 
do so ere they crown them !” It was customary for the bishop, when delivering 
over convicted heretics to the secular magistrate bound by his oath of office to 
burn them at the stake, to intreat that he would do them tzo harm ! 


*32 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


foresight and piety of those Christian princes who, like Henry IV., 
discerning the tendencies of heresy, not only to corrupt the souls of 
their subjects, but to destroy the realm “ with common sedition, in¬ 
surrection and open war,” make provision that “the sparkle be well 
quenched ere it be grown.” Especially is he unwearied in extolling 
the zeal of that “most faithful, virtuous, and erudite prince,” Henry' 
VIII., who by his learned books, and particularly by his determined 
opposition to heresy within his own realm, has'proved himself so emi¬ 
nent a defender of the faith. He is filled with loyal indignation 
against Tyndale, who, in his ‘‘Obedience of a Christian Man,” had 
counselled his readers to suffer any wrong to their persons or prop¬ 
erty, rather than resist the secular power ; a Christian man being, he 
says, “ even bound to obey tyranny if it be not against his faith and 
the law of God, till God deliver him thereof.” Only where the 
ruler's law conflicts with his conscience and the law of God, then he 
is bound to obey God rather than man, and patiently abide the pen¬ 
alty. 

This was a tender point with the willful and despotic Henry, who 
claimed to be himself the conscience of his kingdom, and More well 
knew how to touch it. In that caveat, “ if it be not against his faith 
and the law of God he could discern the germ of all mischief. 

“ They bid the people,” he says,* “ for a countenance, to be obedi¬ 
ent. But they say therewith that the laws and precepts of their sove¬ 
reign do nothing bind the subjects in their consciences, but [unless] 
the things by them forbidden or commanded, were before forbidden 

or commanded in Scripture.And thus it is sure that, by 

their false doctrine, they must, if they be believed, bring the people 
into the secret contempt and spiritual disobedience and inward' 
hatred of the law ; whereof must after follow the outward breach and 
thereupon outward punishment and peril of rebellion, whereby the 
princes should be driven to sore effusion of their subjects’ blood, as 
hath already happened in Almain, and of old time in England. Friar 
Barnesf in his frantic book biddeth the people they should rebel in no 
wise. But he biddeth them therewith that for all the king’s command¬ 
ment they should not suffer Tyndale’s false translation to go out of 
their hands, but die rather than leave it. . . . And thus ye see 

how fain he would glory in the people’s blood. For he wotteth very 
well that the king’s highness will in no wise, nor in no wise may, if he 
will save his own soul, suffer that false translation in the hands of 
unlearned people ; which is by an open heretic purposely translated 

Preface to the Confutation, p. 352. f The same mentioned in Chap. XIII. 


SHALL THE PEOPLE HAVE THE BIBLE? 


133 


false to the destruction of so many souls. Now no man doubteth, 
that Tyndale himself would no less were done for the maintenance 
of his false translation of the evangelists, than his evangelical brother 
Barnes ; but that folk should, against the king’s proclamations, keep 
still his books, and rather than leave them die in the quarrel in de¬ 
fence of his glory, Whereas I did before in my Dialogue say, that 
Luther’s books be seditious, as I now say that Tyndale’s be too, 
and moving people to their own undoing, to be disobedient and rebel¬ 
lious to their sovereigns.” 

But many a man can persecute in theory, whose heart shrinks from 
the practical realization of his principles. Not so with Sir Thomas 
More. It is food for his mirth to recall the sufferings of those godly 
men, who had perished at the stake for nothing else than their love to 
God and his truth ; against whom he could himself allege nothing but 
their rejection of the dogmas of his Church. After a garbled account 
of the trials of one of them, he exclaims, “ And this lo ! is Sir 
Thomas Hytton, the devil’s stinking martyr, of whose burning Tyndale 
maketh boast.”* “ I hear also,” he continues, “ that Tyndale rejoic- 
eth also in the burning of Tewskbury ; but I can see no very great 
cause why, but if he reckon it for a great glory that the man did abide 
still by the stake when he was fast bound to it.” After stating the 
proofs of Tewksbury’s guilt, namely, that Wickliffe’s Wicket,f one of 
Luther’s books, and Tyndale’s “ Mammon” and “ Obedience” were 
found in his house ; he adds that in his opinion, Tewksbury would 
never have become a heretic had Tyndale’s ungracious books never 
come into his hands, “ for which the poor wretch lieth now in hell 
and crieth out on him ; and Tyndale, if he do not amend in time, he 
is like to find him, when they come together, a hot firebrand burning 
at his back that all the water in the world will not be able to 
quench.” 

We shall have occasion to refer again to these writings by and by ; 
but it is presumed the reader has had a sufficient taste of them for the 
present. Immediately after the publication of the “ Dialogue,” in 
the spring of 1529, Sir Thomas More left England to represent, con¬ 
jointly with Tunstal and Hackett, the interests of Henry in the royal 
conference, appointed at Cambray, for adjusting the differences be¬ 
tween the Emperor and the King of France. The result was a treaty 

* Tyndale had alluded in one of his books to the constancy of this good man. 

f This treatise of the old reformer, on the Sacrament of the Supper, had re¬ 
cently been printed, and was a favorite manual on the subject with the pious 
Christians of the time. 


134 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


between Henry and the Emperor, one article of which secured the 
continuance of their commercial relations, the other a mutual pledge 
to prohibit the printing, sale and importation of all Lutheran books 
within their respective dominions.* Under this convenient term 
were included, as before mentioned, all books in English as well as in 
other languages, offensive to the Church of Rome ; and of these Tyn- 
dale’s New Testament stood first on the list. 

This important negotiation being happily concluded, the colleagues 
parted, Tunstal for Antwerp, to repeat the experiment of buying up 
all the English New Testaments in that market, More for England, 
to receive full power to put in practice the intolerant principles which 
he had advocated with his pen. 

But the oft-repeated challenge of the reformer, thus expressed in 
the prologue of his translation of the Pentateuch, remained unan¬ 
swered : “1 submit this work, and all other that I have either made 
or translated, or shall in time to come (if it be God’s will that I fur¬ 
ther labor in that harvest), unto all them that submit themselves unto 
the word of God, to be corrected by them ; yea, and moreover, to be 
disallowed and also burnt, if it seem worthy, so that they first put forth 
of their own translating another that is more correct . ’ ’ 


* Anderson’s Annals, vol. i., p. 213. 


CHAPTER XIX. 


SIR THOMAS MORE AS CHANCELLOR. 

Soon after Sir Thomas More’s return from France, he was raised 
to the dignity of Lord Chancellor of England, made vacant by the fall 
of Wolsey—the highest office in the royal gift. The distinction was 
the greater, from the fact that this was the first time, during a hun¬ 
dred years, in which it had been bestowed on a layman. This inno¬ 
vation on long-established usages would once have been hailed as an 
auspicious omen to the cause of religious toleration. When clerical 
chancellors used the office for the suppression of free inquiry, it was 
no more than might have been looked for in men whose personal 
interests were at stake ; from a layman a more liberal view of the 
general interests of the country might naturally be expected. 

The result was precisely the reverse. Hitherto the government, as 
such, had taken no active and avowed part in persecution at home. 
The decrees, mandates, secret searches, trials of heretics, etc., noticed 
in the foregoing chapters, had emanated from the direct action of the 
Church. Now, however, under the administration of the great layman 
and commoner, we first see the secular power openly linked with the 
Church in this work, and taking the lead as guardian ex officio of the 
religious opinions of the realm. His position on this subject was sig¬ 
nificantly indicated in his opening speech as Chancellor ; as also in 
the articles of impeachment against Wolsey, presented by him to 
Henry in the name of the Lords. In one of these, the Cardinal is 
accused of having “ interfered with the due and direct correction of 
heresies, highly to the danger and peril of the whole body and good 
Christian people of this realm.” His successor evidently did not in¬ 
tend that his policy should be liable to such a charge ; and if we 
recall the course of Wolsey, we shall feel assured that no half-way 
measures were in contemplation. 

The prognostic was soon verified. On the 24th of December, i 5 2 9 > 
just two months after his induction into office, there appeared, “ in 
the name of the King our Sovereign Lord, a manifesto, 
exceeding in the cruelty of its provisions all that the bishops had 
hitherto attempted by their own authority. By this “ fierce and terri¬ 
ble proclamation,” as Foxe calls it, the civil power bound itself to be 





136 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


the right arm of the Church in the extirpation of heresy. “ The 
Chancellor, the Treasurer of England, the Justice of the one bench 
and of the other, Justices of Peace, Sheriffs, Mayors, Bailies, and 
other officers, ’ ’ such is its language, “ shall make oath, on taking their 
charge, to give their whole power and diligence to put away, and 
make utterly to cease and destroy, all errors and heresies commonly 
called Lollardies.* They shall assist the Bishops and their Commis¬ 
saries, shall favor and maintain them as often as by them required.” 

** The Justices of the King’s Bench, Justices of Peace and of Assize, 
shall inquire at their sessions of all those that hold errors or heresies, 
and who be their maintainers, the common writers of books, and also 

of their schools, sermons, etc.”.” Offenders to be 

delivered to the Bishops or Commissaries, by indenture between 
them, to be made within ten days or sooner, .... to be 
acquitted or condemned after the laws of Holy Church.” If con¬ 
victed, the secular power was again to receive them, and without far¬ 
ther trial, to carry the sentence of the bishop into execution. The 
proclamation was especially severe against the writers, venders, and 
readers of heretical books, of which a list was given, including 
ninety-four in Latin, and twenty-four in English. At the head stood 
what More called ” the father of them all,” the New Testament of 
Tyndale.' 

Yet so little effect had these vigorous measures in counteracting the 
mischief, that in the following spring the aged Bishop of Norwich 
complains, in a pathetic appeal to the Archbishop, that he is ” accum- 
bered by such as keepeth and readeth these erroneous books in Eng¬ 
lish, and believe and give credence to the same, and teach others that 
they should do so.” “ My Lord,” he adds, “ I have done that lyeth 
in me for the suppression of such persons ; but it passeth my power 
or of any spiritual man to do it ”; and he expresses his apprehension 
that if not speedily checked, “ they will undo us all.” 

But the high powers of church and state were well aware of the 
alarming aspect of things, and were already preparing for a movement 
which they intended should be decisive. 

In the library at Lambeth palace is preserved an ancient docu¬ 
ment, bearing date May 28, 1530, which covers eight skins of parch¬ 
ment, written on both sides in a very fine hand, the record of this ! 
combination of the temporal and spiritual powers to prop up the fall- | 

* This name, as Anderson remarks, points to indigenous heresies identical 
with those of Wickliffe and his followers ; not to those of foreign origin, which j 
were, in distinction, called Lutheran—though the latter term was often applied to i 




SIR THOMAS MORE AS CHANCELLOR. 


137 


ing kingdom of darkness and check the triumphant progress of the 
word of God.* The Lord Chancellor thus describes the imposing 
ceremonial of its publication : “ For I well know that the King’s 
highness, which as he for his most faithful mind to God, nothing 
more effectually desireth than the maintenance of the true Catholic 
faith whereof he is, by his no more honorable than well-deserved title, 
Defensor ; so nothing more detesteth, than these pestilent books that 
Tyndale and such other send into the realm, to set forth their abomi¬ 
nable heresies withal ; doth of his blessed disposition, of all earthly 
things abhor the necessity to do punishment ; and for that cause hath 
not only, by his most famous erudite books, both in English and in 
Latin, declared his most Catholic purpose and intent, but, also, by 
his open proclamation divers times iterate and renewed, and finally, 
in his own most royal person, in the Star Chamber, most eloquently 
by his own mouth, in great presence of his lords spiritual and tempo¬ 
ral, gave monition and warning to all justices of peace in every quar¬ 
ter of his realm, then assembled before his highness, to be by them in 
all their countries [shires] to all his people declared, and did prohibit 
and forbid upon great pains, the bringing in, reading, and keeping 
any of those pernicious, poisoned books, to the intent that every sub¬ 
ject of his, by the mean of such manifold effectual warning, with his 
•gracious remission of their former offence in his commandments 
before broken, should from thenceforth avoid and eschew the peril 
and danger of punishment, and not drive his highness of necessity to 
the thing from which the mildness of his benign nature abhorreth.”f 

The instrument commences with a solemn appeal to God and all 
true Christian people, and an explanation of the reasons for which it 
was set forth ; followed by a Bill in English, to be published by the 
preachers in all the realm ; and closes with the statement, that his 
Grace’s Highness did “ then and there, in the presence of all the per¬ 
sonages there assembled, require three notaries to make public and 
authentic instruments, and set thereunto our seal accordingly.” 

This great movement had not been resolved on without due fore¬ 
thought and preparation. It is stated in the preamble to the instru¬ 
ment itself, that the King, being informed of the alarming spread of 
heresy in his dominions, through books in the English tongue brought 
from beyond the sea, had caused a collection of these to be submitted 
to “ his council, prelates, and divers learned men of both universities, 
and others, for examination ; who, being thus prepared, met for con- 


* Offor’s Memoir of Tyndale, p. 54. 
f Preface to the Confutation, p. 351. 





138 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


sultation at the palace at Westminster, and unanimously resolved 
that the said books “ do swarm full of heresies and detestable opin- 1 
ions.” These heresies, some two hundred in number, are engrossed 
at full length on the deed ; which proceeds to declare, that “ the 
books containing the same, with the translation also of Scripture, cor¬ 
rupted by William Tyndale, as well in the Old Testament as in the 
New, the King’s highness, with the assent of the prelates and univer¬ 
sities, has determined utterly to be expelled, rejected, and put away 
out of the hands of his people. And the King orders all preachers in 
his realm to publish the commands of his highness in a Bill, in Eng¬ 
lish, to be read in every church and chapel in the kingdom during 
divine service.” 

This Bill required all the King’s subjects, who had in possession the 
books specified, or others of like character, henceforth “ to detest 
them, to abhor them, to keep them not in their hands, to deliver 
them up to the superiors, such as call for them. And if anything of 
the poison remained in their minds, they were to forget it, or by in¬ 
formation of the truth, expel it.” ” This,” it proceeds, “ ye ought 
to do ; and being obstinate, the prelates of the Church ought to com¬ 
pel you ; and your Prince to punish and correct you, not doing the 
same.” Then follows the King’s decision in regard to ” the Scrip - 
ture in the vulgar tongue , and in the common people's hands" which is : 

“ that having of the whole Scripture is not necessary to Christian 
men ; and that the King’s highness, having advised with his council 
and other great learned men, thinketh in his conscience, that the 
divulging of the Scripture at this time, in the English tongue, to be 
committed to the people, should rather be to their farther confusion 
and destruction, than to the edification of their souls. And it was 
thought there, in that assembly, that the King’s highness and the pre¬ 
lates in so doing, not suffering the Scriptures to be divulged and 
communicated to the people in the English tongue at this time, doth 
well.’ • 

This action was followed by a royal proclamation, directed ex¬ 
pressly and solely against the works of Tyndale. “ The King’s sub¬ 
jects are commanded to deliver up all such books within fifteen days ; 
and the judges, justices, constables, and all officers, are ordered to 
seize all who refuse, or are suspected of possessing them, and bring 
them before the King and his council, that they may be corrected 
and punished for their contempt, to the terrible example of other 
transgressors.” It decrees, moreover, that the Scriptures in English 

are books of heresy , and shall be clearly exterminated and exiled out 
of this realm of England forever.” 



SIR THOMAS MORE AS CHANCELLOR. 


139 


These formidable manifestos received an appropriate seal and con¬ 
firmation at the hands of Bishop Tunstal, the friend and confidant of 
the Lord Chancellor, in a second great Bible-burning at Paul’s Cross. 
The story of the Bibles used for this purpose has been often repeated, 
and its truth, in substance, is beyond a doubt. 

Bishop Tunstal, it will be recollected, had proceeded from Cambray 
to Antwerp, for the purpose of getting possession of the English 
Bibles then in that market. Foxe* thus relates the process by which 
he accomplished his object : 

“ Here it is to be remembered, that at this present time one 
Augustine Packington, a mercer and merchant of London, the same 
time was in Antwerp, where the Bishop then was ; and this Packing- 
ton was a man that highly favored Tyndale, but to the Bishop showed 
the contrary. The Bishop, desirous of having his purpose brought to 
pass, communed of the New Testaments, and how gladly he would 
buy them. Packington then hearing him say so, said : ‘ My Lord, if 
it be your pleasure, I can in this matter do more, I dare say, than 
most of the merchants of England that are here, for I know the 
Dutchmen (i.e., Germans) and strangers that have bought them of 
Tyndale, and have them here to sell ; so that if it be your Lordship’s 
pleasure to pay for them—for otherwise I cannot come by them, but 
I must disburse money for them—I will then assure you to have 
every book of them that is imprinted, and is here unsold.’ The 
Bishop said : ‘ Gentle Mr. Packington, do your diligence and get 
them ; and with all my heart I will pay for them, whatever they cost 
you ; for the books are erroneous and naught, and I intend surely to 
destroy them all, and to burn them at Paul’s Cross.’ Augustine 
Packington then came to Tyndale, and said : ‘ William, I know thou 
art a poor man, and hast a heap of New Testaments and books by 
thee, for which thou hast both endangered thy friends and beggared 
thyself, and I have now gotten thee a merchant, which, with ready 
money, shall dispatch thee of all that thou hast, if you think it profit¬ 
able to yourself.’ ‘Who is the merchant?’ said Tyndale. ‘The 
Bishop of London,’ said Packington. ‘ O, that is because he will 
burn them,’ said Tyndale. ‘ Yes,’ quoth Packington. I am the 
gladder,* said Tyndale, ‘ for these two benefits shall come thereof . I 
shall get money to bring myself out of debt, and the whole world will 
cry out against the burning of God’s word ; and the overplus of the 
money that shall remain to me, shall make me more studious to cor¬ 
rect the said New Testament, and so newly to imprint the same 


* Anderson, vol. i., p. 214. 




140 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


again ; and I trust the second will much better like [please] you than 
* ever did the first. ’ So, forward went the bargain : the Bishop had 
the books, Packington had the thanks, and Tyndale had the money. ”* 

These were the volumes now brought forth to signalize, by a bon¬ 
fire of Bibles, the recent renewal of the marriage covenant between 
the State and the Church. In the words of Anderson, “ The Clergy 
and the Star Chamber were now in perfect harmony.” 

But lest there be any doubt whether he were indeed the leader in 
these measures, the Lord Chancellor has made a record on the subject 
with his own pen. In the preface to the Confutation (published in 
1532, the third year of his chancellorship), immediately after the pas¬ 
sage quoted on p. 137, he adds : “ Now seeing the King’s gracious 
purpose in this point, I reckon that, being his unworthy Chancellor, it 
appertaineth, as I said, unto my part and duty, to follow the example 
of his noble grace, and after my poor wit and learning, with opening 
to his people the malice and poison of these pernicious books, to help 
as much as in me is, that his people, abandoning the contagion of all 
such pestilent writing, may be far from infection, and thereby from 
all such punishment, as following thereupon, doth oftentimes rather 
serve to make other beware that are yet clear, than to cure and heal 
well those that are already infected ; so hard is that carbuncle catch¬ 
ing once a core to be by any man well and surely cured. Howbeit, 
God so worketh that sometime it is. Toward the help whereof, or 
if it haply be incurable, then to the clean cutting out that part for in¬ 
fection of the remnant, am I by mine office in virtue of my oath , ana 
every officer of justice through the realm for his rate , right especially 
bounden , not in reason only and good congruence, but also by plain 
obedience and statute.” 

During his whole administration the fury of religious persecution 
never relaxed. On his hands, not less than on the bishops’ whose 
zeal he stimulated, and over whose most execrable acts he cast the 
shield of his mighty influence and authority, lies the blood of the 
martyrs who perished during the reign of terror. Some were impris- 

* Tyndale’s conduct, as thus represented by Foxe, has been objected to, as 
not strictly in accordance with that “ simplicity and godly sincerity” which usu¬ 
ally characterized him. It is very certain that he could never have originated or 
managed such a negotiation ; but one can imagine him smiling in grave humor, 
to see the wily enemy of truth thus circumvent himself. It was a bona fide sale ; 
the Bishop had for his money just what he wanted—only Tyndale turned the 
bargain from his bad intent to the good one of perfecting and multiplying the 
English Bible. He attached no such sacredness to a translation of the Scriptures, 
as to flinch from its destruction, when this was to be the means of furnishing 
one nearer to the inspired original. 


SIR THOMAS MORE AS CHANCELLOR. 141 

oned, loaded with irons, in his own house ; some were whipped, some 
subjected to the torture of the rack, under his personal supervision,' 
while his mocking jests insulted the agony of his victims. He was, 
moreover, deeply involved in those dastardly intrigues for entrapping 
Tyndale which ended in the imprisonment and death of this friend of 
God and man. 

It is vain for his eulogists to attempt to wipe out these stains upon 
his memory, by charging Protestant narrators with misrepresenting 
facts. Were there not a line of other testimony on record against 
him, his own writings bear witness to principles so infamous and a 
heart so cruel, that they would have consigned any other man to the 
execration of the world. His writings after he retired from office 
show, if possible, a still more bitter and blood-thirsty spirit than while 
he was in active life. A great scandal had come upon the clergy in 
consequence of their tyrannical use of the law ex officio , by which 
persons were arrested on secret information or mere suspicion of 
heresy, and in secret trial, without being confronted with their 
accusers, were condemned to the severest punishments, even to death 
at the stake, on evidence extorted from themselves by cross-examina¬ 
tions, threats and tortures. Even the mere inability to disprove the 
charge, was ground sufficient for the extremest proceedings of this 
English Inquisition. Thus might any industrious, peaceable, virtu¬ 
ous citizen, who had incurred the hatred of the clergy, or even of an 
ill-minded neighbor, be snatched without warning from his dependent 
family, and after being hurried through a mock trial, be exposed as 
an abjuring heretic to the derision of the populace ; or, as contuma¬ 
cious, be immured in a loathsome dungeon, or be led out to an igno¬ 
minious and cruel death. Many such cases are related by Foxe, 
which divide the heart between pity and admiration for the sufferer 
and burning indignation against those who, under the holy name of 
religion, could thus oppress their fellow men. Who would not have 
thought that Sir Thomas More, the enlightened, the just, the humane, 
as he is represented, would have set himself as a rock against this 
abuse of irresponsible power ? On the contrary, he defends the odi¬ 
ous law and its horrible abuses, with all the skill of which he is mas¬ 
ter. We have no room for his arguments here ; but those who feel a 
curiosity to know with what reasons the most enlightened English 
statesman of his time could advocate a criminal process for mere 
opinion, which is now banished from the common law of England in 
the case of the worst felons, can find them in his Apology , and his 
Debellacion of Salem and Byzance* both written the year after his 

* These two works belonged to a controversy between Sir Thomas More and 






142 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


retirement. It was objected to him at that time, that the felon had 
at least the benefit of trial by jury ; to which he replies, that he never 
saw the day yet, but that he durst trust as well the truth of one judge 
as of two juries !”* 

But he did something worse, if possible, than to defend the law ex 
officio , viz., advocated the violation, on the ground of heresy, of safe- 
conducts granted by the King. Such had been furnished to Dr. 
Barnes, to allow him to come for a limited time into England. More 
says of him (Pref. to Conf. p. 343), “ And yet hath he so demeaned 
himself since his coming hither, that he hath clearly broken and for¬ 
feited his safe conduct, and lawfully might be burned for his heresies 
if we would lay his heresies and his demeanor since his coming hither 
both twain unto his charge.” To this Frith replies (Eng. Reformers, 
vol. iii., p. 422) : “ This your saying is but a vain gloss ; for I myself 
did read the safe-conduct that came unto him, which had but only 
this one condition annexed unto it, that if he came before the feast of 
Christmas next ensuing, he should have free liberty to depart at his 
pleasure, and this condition I know was fulfilled. How then should 
he forfeit his safe-conduct ?” Frith then turns the case very adroitly 
against the Ex-Chancellor. “But,” says he, “Mr. More hath 
learned of his masters, our prelates (whose proctor he is), to depress 
our Prince’s prerogative, that men ought not to keep any promise with 
heretics. As though the King’s grace might not admit any man to 
come and go freely into his Grace’s realm, but that he must have 
leave of our prelates ! For else they might lay heresy against the 
person, and so slay him contrary to the King’s safe-conduct ; which 
things all wise men do know to be prejudicial to his Grace’s preroga¬ 
tive royal. . . . These words had been very extreme, and wor¬ 

thy to have been looked upon, although they had been written by 
some presumptuous prelate. But that a lay man, so highly promoted 

an anonymous writer, known, however, to be Christopher Saint Germain, an 
eminent jurist of the day, who, in two treatises, “ The Pacifier ,” and “ Salem 
and Bizancefih&d. taken ground, though with great temper and judgment, against 
the tyrannical course of the clergy in regard to heresy. He was a Catholic, but 
not a Romanist : and the quotations made from his writings in More’s replies, 
show him to have been a man of equal humanity and justice, far exceeding in 
breadth and liberality of views his more celebrated contemporary. They are of 
great value, also, for the light they throw on the prevailing state of opinion in 
the community. More acknowledged, with a sort of peevish candor, that they 
had found great favor with the public, and that their brevity and mildness of 
spirit were held up as models for his own imitation. We cannot see, however, 
that in either respect he profited by the lesson. 

* Debellacion, etc., p. 988. 



SIR THOMAS MORE AS CHANCELLOR. 


143 

by his Prince, should speak them, and also cause them openly to be 
published among his Grace’s commons, to reject the estimation of his 
royal power, doth, in my mind, deserve correction. Notwithstand¬ 
ing, I leave the judgment and determination unto the discretion of his 
Grace’s honorable council.” 

When the bishops came to offer him several thousand pounds in 
gold, contributed by the clergy as an expression of their gratitude for 
the important service rendered them by his pen, he utterly refused it, 
and said he would rather it were all thrown into the Thames, than 
that he or his family should be benefited by it to the value of a single 
groat. He was actuated by a far different, shall we say far better, 
motive than the love of money. His inspiration was unmixed relig¬ 
ious zealotism. 

I 1 or albeit they were,” he says, “ as indeed they were, both good 
men and honorable, yet look I for my thank of God that is their bet¬ 
ter, and for whose sake I take the labor, and not for theirs.” * Pie 
verily thought that he was doing God service. 

This inspiration never failed him, nor have we any evidence that 
the asperity of his zeal was in any degree softened by his own bitter 
experience of persecution for opinion’s sake. There came a time 
when Sir Thomas More found that he had a law in his own bosom, of 
more authority than the behest of a king. When Henry requested 
him to acknowledge, against his conscience, the validity of his mar¬ 
riage with Anne Boleyn, and his supremacy over the Church in Eng¬ 
land, he felt obliged to refuse, though at the forfeiture of such honors 
as few men have to lose, of domestic ties peculiarly endearing, and of 
life itself. Yet even when passing through that bitter conflict of soul, 
so touchingly described in his letters to his beloved daughter Mar¬ 
garet,! feeling that without the special help of God he should fail in 
his allegiance to truth—even then, no remorseful memory seems to 
have crossed his mind of those whom he had racked, body and soul, 
to compel them to violate their consciences. When it was urged upon 
him, at an examination before the king’s council, that no more was 
required of him than he had required of heretics, and for the refusal 
of which they had died at the stake ; he replied that the cases were 
not parallel, since their consciences were in opposition to the con¬ 
science of universal Christendom, i.e., of the holy Catholic Church, 
as expressed by its constituted authorities ; J but his was in unison 

* Apology, p. 876. 

f More's English Works, Letter to Margaret Roper, p. 1449. 

X Ibid, p. 1453. An illustration of this principle, interesting for its bearings on 
a recent decision of the Romish Church, will be found in the Appendix. 


144 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


with it ! Even in those devotional treatises composed in prison, so 
breathing of self-abasement, of submission to the divine will, of 
aspiration toward God, the name of heretic revives the same hard, 
unrelenting tone as he had used in- the days of his pride and power. 
How was it that the shades of the murdered Bilney and Bayfield, of 
Bainham and Tewksbury, and of other innocent and holy martyrs, 
did not crowd his solitary cell, making his heart quake with the hor¬ 
rors of the world to come, or humbling him in dust and ashes as the 
chief of sinners, because he had persecuted the Church of God ! Ah, 
had it been so, he would have left a fairer name to posterity. 

When we contemplate Sir Thomas More in his patriarchal house¬ 
hold, the idol of that happy, virtuous, accomplished family, who 
owed all they were to his wise and affectionate training ; as the kind 
and charitable neighbor ; as the incorruptible statesman ; as the mar¬ 
tyr to conscience, how can we but admire and honor him ? Would 
that the dark pages of his history were not so much more numerous 
than the bright ! Would that the beautiful spectacle of even those 
last scenes were not clouded by the thought of what he had done, as 
the fierce religious partizan, to foster in his sovereign those towering 
notions of royal prerogative, and that tiger thirst for blood, of which 
he himself was the victim. Surely, it was no more than a just retri¬ 
bution, that he should taste of “ the mildness of that benign nature 
which he had so extolled when it was directed against heretics. Of 
no man could it ever be said more truly : “ He ate of the fruit of his 
own doing, and was filled with his own devices.” 

* Bainham, while standing by the stake, spoke as follows : “ I came hither 
good people, accused and condemned for an heretic, Sir Thomas More being my 
accuser and my judge. And these be the articles that I die for, which be a very 
truth and grounded on God’s word, and no heresy. They be these : First, I sav 
it is lawful for every man and woman to have God’s book in their mother- 
tongue. The second article is, that the Bishop of Rome is Antichrist, and that 
I know of no other keys of heaven’s gates but only the preaching of the Law i 
and the Gospel ; and that there is no other purgatory but the purgatory of i 
Christ’s blood.” Almost his last words were : “ The Lord forgive Sir Thomas 
More.” 



CHAPTER XX. 


THE ROYAL PATRONESS. 

With the fall of Sir Thomas More the fury of persecution sensibly 
abated. Not that his great allies, the bishops, had lost in any degree 
the persecuting spirit ; but they had lost in him the directing mind 
and will. There was no longer the same thorough inquisition after 
heretical books ; Bibles came more and more freely into England, 
and were read with far less peril to life. In this result we see indeed 
the concurrence of other influences which began at this time to affect 
sensibly the interests of the papal party. 

Among these influences none was more potent than the countenance 
given to the translation and dissemination of the Holy Scriptures by 
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. 

We need not here recount the steps by which the unfortunate 
Katherine’s beautiful and accomplished maid of honor became the 
rival and successor of her royal mistress. It is sufficient for our pur¬ 
pose to note the fact that, notwithstanding the earnestness with which 
Tyndale, like another John the Baptist, had condemned the king’s 
divorce from Katherine, as a wrong not merely to the immediate 
sufferer, but to that institution which God had ordained as the chief 
guardian of social order and virtue, the influence of Anne was steadily 
and courageously given, during the entire period of her reign, to the 
furtherance of those views, for the sake of which the great reformer 
had been so long an exile, and the object of relentless persecution 
from king and clergy. From the date of her marriage, the working 
of a new and powerful element was felt in the English court. Foxe 
says of the period immediately preceding : “ So great was the trouble 
of those times that it would overcharge my story to recite the names 
of all them which, during those bitter days, before the coming in of 
Queen Anne , either were driven out of the realm, or were cast out 
from their goods and houses, or brought to open shame by abjura¬ 
tion.” The “new learning” came gradually into the ascendant; 
Cranmer, Latimer, and others of like character, men who pleaded 
openly for the Bible in the vernacular, were promoted to positions of 
high responsibility ; the Scriptures came more and more freely into 
England, and were read without molestation. 


146 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Anne’s agency in these changes cannot, in general, be directly 
traced ; but the unanimous judgment of all parties at the time, indi¬ 
cates her as the main spring of influence in this direction. In one 
instance of no little interest, we have the direct proof in her own 
handwriting, of her great power and the use she made of it. Richard 
Harman will be remembered as the English merchant at Antwerp, 
who had taken so forward a part in bringing the early editions of Tyn- 
dale’s New Testament into England. For this, he had not only 
suffered imprisonment and heavy pecuniary loss, but, what to a man 
of his character was a far severer calamity, expulsion from the Hon¬ 
orable Company of English Merchant Adventurers,’ and this unright¬ 
eous action had never been reversed. But the very year after Anne 
became Queen, Harman ventured into England to seek redress. His 
application seems to have been made directly to her, as the known 
friend of the Reformation ; and the result—won from the King, no 
doubt, by her persuasions—appears in the following letter from her to 
Crumwell, the State Secretary : 

Anne the Queen. 

Trusty and right well beloved, we greet you well. And whereas, we be cred¬ 
ibly informed that the bearer hereof—Richard Harman—merchant and citizen of 
Antwerp, in Brabant, was, in the time of the late Lord Cardinal, put and expelled 
from his freedom and fellowship, of and in the English house there, for nothing 
else (as he affirmeth) but only for that he, still like a good Christian man, did 
both with his goods and policy, to his great hurt and hindrance in this world, help 
to the setting forth of the New Testament in English. We therefore desire and 
instantly pray you, that with all speed and favor convenient, ye will cause this 
good and honest merchant, being my Lord’s true, faithful, and loving subiect. 
to be restored to his pristine freedom, liberty, and fellowship aforesaid, and the 
sooner at this our request, and at your good leisure to hear him in such things 
as he hath to make further relation unto you in this behalf. Given under our 
signet, at my Lord’s manor of Greenwich, the thirteenth day of May. To our 
trusty and right well beloved, Thomas Crumwell, Squire, Chief Secretary unto 
my Lord, the King’s Highness. 

1 he tone of this royal epistle—royal in the best sense of the word 

cannot but strike the reader with admiration. It is to be remem¬ 
bered, that though Bibles were now allowed to come silently into the 
kingdom, it was still in violation of express law and statute, and 
against the opposition of a powerful and embittered party. Yet she 
takes pains to state precisely the offence for which Harman had 
suffered, and justifies it as the right and praiseworthy act of “ a good 
Christian man.” As Anderson well remarks, ‘‘no man , either of 
office or influence, ever so expressed himself while Tyndale lived.” 

Tyndale had, without doubt, already been made acquainted with the 


THE ROYAL PATRONESS. 


147 


noble stand taken for the truth, by the woman whose elevation he 
had honestly opposed ; and Richard Harman would not now fail, on 
his return to Antwerp, to inform his friend of the agency through 
which his errand had reached so happy an issue. Tyndale was then 
engaged in publishing his revised New Testament. His recognition 
of the services of Anne to the cause he loved was equally appropriate 
and delicate a beautifully printed and illuminated copy of the divine 
word, on vellum, with the Queen’s name, Anna Regina Anglic, 
arranged in large ornamental letters around the title page.* In the 
narrative yet to be given of the persecution to which Tyndale was 
afterward subjected, we shall find traces of her personal interest in 
the reformer, prompting measures which might have saved him, had 
she been seconded by hearts as brave and unselfish as her own. 

The close of the year 1534 was marked by a strange event ; no 
other than a petition to the King from the clergy in Convocation 
assembled, for a translation of the Scriptures into English. “ This 
good motion,” as we learn from Strype,f was made and warmly 
advocated by Cranmer. But it was not carried through without vio¬ 
lent opposition from the Popish party, headed by Stephen Gardiner, 
Bishop of Winchester, who declared, that “ all the heresies and 
extravagant opinions then in Germany and thence coming over to 
England, sprang from the free use of the Scriptures. . . . And to 
offer the Bible in the English tongue to the whole nation during these 
distractions, would prove the greatest snare that could be.’’I 

The next year, Cranmer made a vigorous attempt to consummate 
this movement, by securing a version of the Scriptures which might 
be circulated with the advantage of the King’s sanction. Unwilling 
to wait till a new translation from the original could be prepared, and 
unable to use Tyndale’s, which was prohibited bylaw, he adopted the 
following plan, as related by Strype in his life :§ 

“ And that it might not be prohibited, as it had been, upon pretence of the 
ignorance or unfaithfulness of the translators, he proceeded in this method : 
First, he began with the translation of the New Testament—taking an old Eng¬ 
lish translation thereof,! which he divided into nine or ten parts, causing each 

* Anderson, vol. i., p. 413. 

f Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, vol. i., p. 34. X Burnet. 

§ Strype’s Cranmer, vol. i., p. 48. 

|| It is with pleasure that we recognize in this “ old English translation,” the 
venerable version of Wickliffe. Of course it could be no other. The awkward 
device of transcribing one so well known as Tyndale’s—which is Anderson’s 
supposition—must immediately have betrayed itself; but a work so rare as 
Wickliffe’s, newly copied, could with difficulty be identified as his, and might 
therefore well answer Cranmer’s purpose. 


148 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


part to be written at large in a paper book, and then to be sent to the best learned 
bishops and others, to the intent they should make a perfect correction thereof. 
And when they had done, he required them to send back their parts so corrected 
unto him at Lambeth, by a day limited for that purpose ; and the same course, 
no question, he took with the Old Testament.’’ 

How cordial one of the bishops was to this plan is seen in the anec¬ 
dote told by Strype of Stokesly, Bishop of London, who returned his 
portion uncorrected, with the answer : “I marvel what my Lord of 
Canterbury meaneth that thus abuseth the people, in giving them lib¬ 
erty to read the Scriptures, which doth nothing else but infect them 
with heresy. I have bestowed never an hour on my portion, nor 
never will. And therefore my Lord shall have his book again, for I 
will never be guilty of bringing the simple people into error.” 

Of the secret efforts of Gardiner to frustrate this undertaking, as 
well as of Anne Boleyn’s agency in securing a decision in its favor 
from the King and of the course of its final failure, we are informed 
by Archbishop Parker.* Being at this time chaplain to the Queen, f 
he had the best opportunity for understanding the whole transaction. 

“ His royal Majesty,” says Parker, “ was petitioned by the whole Synod, to 
give commandment that the Holy Scriptures might be translated into the Eng¬ 
lish tongue ; for so it could be more easily discerned by all, what was agreeable 
to the Divine Law. To this, Stephen Gardiner—the King’s most secret counsel¬ 
lor-made resistance as covertly as possible. But through the grace and inter¬ 
cession of our most illustrious and virtuous mistress the Queen, permission was 
at length obtained from the King, that the Holy Scriptures should be printed 
and deposited in every church, in a place where the people might read them ; 
which grant of the King did not go into effect, because this most illustrious 
Queen soon after suffered death.” 

Nor was this the only fruit of her zeal for the Scriptures in the 
language of the people. Before the close of this same year, Cover- 
dale had completed and carried through the press a translation of the 
whole Bible, which owed much to her patronage, and was dedicated 
to her, conjointly with the King. Of her connection with it there is 
sufficient evidence in the fact that her sudden fall arrested it on the 
eve of publication. Of this version a more particular account will 
be given in the proper place. 

Besides all this there were now pending negotiations for a politico- 
religious league between Henry and the Protestant princes of Ger¬ 
many, which threatened to establish the Augsburg Confession as the 
authoritative standard of belief in England. “ There were many 

* De Antiq. Eccl. Brit., p. 385, (Harvard Univ. Library), 
f Strype’s Life and Acts of Parker, p. 7. 



THE ROYAL PATRONESS. 


I49 


conferences,” says Burnet,* ” between Foxe, Bishop of Hereford, 
Doctor Barnes, and some others, with the Lutheran divines, for 
accommodating the differences between them, and the thing was in a 
good forwardness. All which was imputed to the Queen.” 

It is unnecessary to repeat the familiar story of Anne Boleyn’s sud¬ 
den and tragic fate, or to enter into the yet unsettled question of the 
truth of the charges on which she was tried and condemned. But 
surely, in the light of the facts above narrated, it is not too much to 
claim for her the grateful remembrance of all who love the truth as 
one who fearlessly used her exalted position for the advancement of 
pure religion and of the translation of the Scriptures into the com¬ 
mon tongue, and their free diffusion among the people. 

* Hist. Ref. p. 146. 


• * 


CHAPTER XXL 


MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 

/ 

From the first appearance of Tyndale’s work on the king’s divorce, 
the measures already long on foot for his destruction were pursued 
with fresh energy. Sir John Hackett, as we have seen, had failed 
in the attempt to procure his apprehension by direct aid from the 
Court of Brussels. The new scheme was to decoy him into England 
by the promise of a safe-conduct from the king. Sir Thomas More 
was then at the height of power ; and we have already seen his opin¬ 
ion of the use to be made of a safe-conduct in the case of heretics. 
Nor were the other high officers of state ashamed to lend their services 
to the nefarious plot ; and royal envoys were charged, in connection 
with the management of international policy, to be on the watch for 
William Tyndale. Thomas Crumwell was chief director in the business, 
and Stephen Vaughan, one of his proteges, now Envoy and King’s 
merchant in place of Hackett, his principal agent. The importance 
attached to this part of Vaughan’s mission may be judged of by the 
following letter on the subject, addressed by him to the king, January 
26th, 1530 : 

“ Most excelent Prince, and my most redoubted Sovereign, mine humble ob¬ 
servation due unto your Majesty—My mind continually laboring and thirsting, 
most dread and redoubtable - Sovereign, with exceeding desire to attain the 
knowledge of such things as your Majesty commanded me to learn and practice 
in these parts and thereof advertise you, from time to time, as the case should 
require. And being often dismayed with the regard of so many mischances, as 
always obviate and meet with my labors and policies, whereby the same (after 
great hope had, to do something acceptable unto your Highness’ pleasure) turn 
suddenly to become frustrate, and of, none effect, bringing me, doubtless, into 
right great sorrow and inquietude, considering that. Wherefore, lately, I have 
written three sundry letters unto Willyam Tyndall, and the same sent, for the 
more surety, to three sundry places—to Frankfort, Hamburg, and Marleborough 
(i.e. Marburgh) ; I then not being assured in which of the same he was. I had 
very good hope, after I heard say in England, that he would, upon the promise 
of your Majesty, and of your most gracious safe-conduct, be content to repair 
and come into England, that I should, partly therewith, and partly with such 
other persuasions as I then devised in my said letters, and, finally, with a pro¬ 
mise which I made him—that whatsoever surety he would reasonably desire, for 
his safe coming in and going out of your realm, my friends should labor to have 
the same granted by your Majesty—(but) that now, the bruit and fame of such 
things (as since my writing to him) hath chanced within your realm, should pro- 


MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 151 

voke the man, not only to be minded to the contrary of that whereunto I 
thought, without difficulty, to have easily brought him, but also to suspect my 
persuasions to be made to his more peril and danger ; than, as I think, if he 
were verily persuaded and placed before you, (your most gracious benignity, and 
piteous regard natural, and custom always had, toward your humble subjects 
considered, and specially to those which, (ac)knowledging their offences, shall 
humbly require your most gracious pardon), he should ever have need to doubt 
or fear. Like as your Majesty as well by his letter, written with his own hand, 
sent to me for answer of my said letters ; as also by the copy of another letter of 
his, answering some other person, whom your Majesty perhaps had commanded 
to persuade by like means may plain apperceive—which letters, like as together 
I received from the party, so send I, herewith inclosed to your Highness. 

And whereas I lately apperceived, by certain letters directed to me from Mr. 
Fitzwilliam, Treasurer of your household, that I should endeavor myself, by all 
the ways and means I could study and devise, to obtain you a copy of the book, 
which I wrote was finished, by Tyndall, answering to a book put forth in the 
English tongue by my Lord Chancellor, and the same should send to your 
Majesty, with all celerity—I have undoubtedly so done and did, before the re¬ 
ceipt thereof. Howbeit, I neither can get any of them, nor, as yet, (is it) come 
to my knowledge that any of them should be put forth ; but being put forth, I 
shall then not fail, with all celerity, to send one unto your Highness.” 


In a note to Crumwell, to whom this letter was consigned, he adds : 

It is unlikely to get Tyndale into England, when he daily heareth so 
many things from thence which feareth him. . . . The man is of 

greater knowledge than the King’s highness doth take him for, which 
well appeareth by his works. Would God he were in England !” 

On the 17th of April he had, most unexpectedly, an interview with 
Tyndale ; of which, the very next day, he transmitted the following 
account in a letter to the King : 

“ The day before the date hereof, (17th of April,) I spake with Tyndale with¬ 
out the town of Antwerp ; and by this means. He sent a certain person to seek 
me, whom he had advised to say, that a certain friend of mine, unknown to the 
messenger, was very desirous to speak with ine ; praying me to take pains to go 
unto him, to such places as he should bring me. Then I (said) to the messenger 
—‘ What is your friend, and where is he?’ ‘ His name I know not,’ said he, 

‘ but if it be your pleasure to go where he is, I will be glad thither to bring you. ’ 
Thus doubtful what this matter meant, I concluded to go with him, and followed 
him, till he brought me without the gate, of Antwerp, into a field lying nigh unto 
the same, where was abiding me this said Tyndale. 

“ At our meeting—‘ Do you not know me ?’ said this Tyndale. ‘ I do not well 
remember you,’ said I to him. ‘ My name,’ said he, ‘ is Tyndale.’ ‘ But, Tyn¬ 
dale,’said I, ‘fortunate be our meeting.’ Then Tyndale—‘Sir, I have been 
exceedingly desirous to speak with you.’ ‘ And I with you ; what is vour 
mind?’ ‘ Sir,’ said he, ‘ I am informed that the King’s Grace taketh great dis¬ 
pleasure with me, for putting forth of certain books, which I lately made in these 

1 



152 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


parts ; but specially for the book named “ The Practice of Prelates,"* whereof I 
have no little marvel—considering that in it I did but warn his Grace of the sub¬ 
tle demeanor of the clergy of his realm, toward his person ; and of the shame¬ 
ful abusions by them practised, not a little threatening the displeasure of his 
Grace, and weal of his realm : in which doing, I showed and declared the heart 
of a true subject, which sought the safe guard of his royal person, and weal of 
his Commons : to the intent that his Grace thereof warned, might, in due time, 
prepare his remedies against their subtle dreams. If for my pains therein taken 
—if for my poverty—if for mine exile out of mine natural country and bitter 
absence from my friends—if for my hunger, my thirst, my cold, the great danger 
wherewith I am everywhere compassed ; and finally, if for innumerable other 
hard and sharp fightings which I endure, not yet feeling of their asperity, by 
reason (that) I hoped with my labors to do honor to God, true service to my 
Prince, and pleasure to his Commons ;—how is it that his Grace, this consider¬ 
ing, may either by himself think, or by the persuasions of others, be thought to 
think, that in this doing I should not show a pure mind, a true and incorrupt 
zeal, and affection to his Grace ? Was there in me any such mind, when I 
warned his Grace to beware of his Cardinal, whose iniquity he shortly after 
proved, according to my writing ? Doth this deserve hatred ? 

“ Again, may his Grace, being a Christian prince, be so unkind to God, which 
hath commanded his Word to be spread throughout the world, to give more faith 
to wicked persuasions of men, which presuming above God’s wisdom, and con¬ 
trary to that which Christ expressly commandeth in his Testament, dare say 
that it is not lawful for the people to have the same in a tongue that they under¬ 
stand ; because the purity thereof should open men’s eyes to see their wicked¬ 
ness ? Is there more danger in the King’s subjects, than in the subjects of all 
other Princes, which, in every of their tongues have the same, under privilege of 
their sufferance ? As I now am, very death were more pleasant to me than life, 
considering man’s nature to be such as can bear no truth.’ 

“ Thus, after a long communication had between us, for my part making answer 
as my poor wit would serve me, which was too long to write ; I assayed him 
with gentle persuasions, to know whether he would come into England ; ascer¬ 
taining him that means should be made, if he (only) thereto were minded without 
his peril or danger, that he might do so : And that what surety he would devise 
for the same purpose, should, by labor of friends, be obtained of your Majesty. 
But to this he answered—that he neither would, nor durst, come into England, 
albeit your Grace would promise him never so much surety ; fearing lest, as he 
hath before written, your promise made, should shortly be broken by the persua¬ 
sion of the clergy ; which would affirm that promise made with heretics ought 
not to be kept. 

After this he told me how he had finished a work against my Lord Chancel¬ 
lor’s book, and would not put it in print till such time as your Grace had seen it ; 
because he perceiveth your displeasure towards him for hasty putting forth of his 
other works, and because it should appear that he is not of so obstinate mind as 
he thinks he is reported unto your Grace. This is the substance of his commu¬ 
nications had with me, which, as he spake, I have written to your Grace word for 


* The one in which Tyndale condemned Henry’s divorce from Queen Kathe¬ 
rine.—T. J. C. 


MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 


153 


word, as near as I could by any possible means bring to remembrance. My 
trust, therefore, is that your Grace will not but take my labors in the best part. 
I thought necessary to be written to your Grace. 

“ After these words, he then, being something fearful of me lest I would have 
pursued him, and drawing also towards night, he took his leave of me, and de¬ 
parted from the town, and I toward the town—saying, ‘ I should shortly, perad- 
venture, see him again, or if not, hear from him.’ Howbeit, I suppose he after¬ 
ward returned to the town by another way, for there is no likelihood that he 
should lodge without the town. Hasty to pursue him I was not, because I had 
some likelihood to speak shortly again with him ; and in pursuing him I might 
perchance have failed of my purpose, and put myself in danger.” 

Vaughan, with all his courtier-like subserviency, was evidently quite 
too good a man for so base an errand. But this cautious attempt to 
soften the king’s feelings was wholly unavailing. A very rough and 
severe reply from Crumwell, who was extremely vexed at the impru¬ 
dence of his subordinate, conveyed the expression of the high royal 
displeasure at the tone of the above letter. Henry w r as, apparently, 
much alarmed lest his envoy, while attempting to execute his wishes,, 
should be corrupted by this dangerous man. He strictly forbade,, 
therefore, any further efforts to persuade Tyndale to come into Eng¬ 
land ; professing that he was “ very joyous to have his realm destitute 
of a person so malicious, perverse, uncharitable, and indurate who 
if once in England, “ would, by all likelihood, shortly (which God 
defend), do as much as in him were to infect and corrupt the whole 
realm, to the great inquietation and hurt of the commonwealth of the 
same. ’ ’ 

The Secretary then adds his own earnest remonstrance, exhorting 
Vaughan by all his hopes of court favor and promotion, to show in his 
future letters to the King, that he bore “ no manner of love, favor, or 
affection to the said Tyndale, nor his works, in any manner of ways, 
but that he utterly contemned and abhorred the same.” 

To this, however, was subjoined a postscript, the result, probably, 
of a subsequent communication from his Majesty, suggesting that hein¬ 
ous as were the offences of Tyndale, if he would but abjure his errors, 
he might be permitted to return to England with some good hope of 
the King’s mercy. On this hint Vaughan ventured to seek another 
interview with him, which he reports as follows : 

“ I have again been in hand to persuade Tyndale ; and to draw him the rather 
to favor my persuasions, and not to think the same feigned, I showed him a 
clause contained in Master Crumwell’s letter, containing these words following— 

‘ And notwithstanding other the premises in this my letter contained, if it were 
possible, by good and wholesome exhortation, to reconcile and convert the said 
Tyndale from the train and affection which he now is in, and to excerpte and take 


154 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


away the opinions sorely rooted in him, I doubt not but the King’s Highness 
would be much joyous of his conversion and amendment ; and so, being con¬ 
verted, if then he would return into his realm, undoubtedly the King’s Royal 
Majesty is so inclined to mercy, pity, and compassion, that he refuseth none 
which he seeth submit themselves to the obedience and good order of the world.' 
In these words I thought to be such sweetness and virtue, as were able to pierce 
the hardest heart of the world : and as I thought so it came to pass. For after 
sight thereof, I perceived the man to be exceedingly altered, and to take the same 
very near unto his heart, in such wise that water stood in his eyes ; and he 
answered, ‘ What gracious words are these !’ ‘I assure you,’ said he, ‘ if it would 
stand with the King’s most gracious pleasure to grant only a bare text of the 
Scripture to be put forth among his people, like as is put forth among the sub¬ 
jects of the Emperor in these parts, and of other Christian princes—be it of the 
translation of what person soever shall please his Majesty, I shall immediately 
make faithful promise never to write more, nor abide two days in these parts after 
the same ; but immediately repair into his realm, and there most humbly submit 
mvself at the feet of his Royal Majesty, offering my body, to suffer what pain or 
torture, yea, what death his Grace will, so that this be obtained. And till that 
time, I will abide the asperity of all chances, whatsoever shall come, and endure 
my life in as much pains as it is able to bear and suffer. And as concerning my 
reconciliation, his Grace maybe assured—that whatsoever I have said or written, 
in all my life, against the honor of God’s Word, and (if) so proved ; the same 
shall I, before his Majesty and all the world utterly renounce and forsake—and 
with most humble and meek mind embrace the truth, abhorring all error soever— 
at the most gracious and benign request of his Royal Majesty, of whose wisdom, 
prudence, and learning I hear so great praise and commendation than of any 
creature living ! But if those things which I have written be true and stand with 
God’s word, why should his Majesty, having so excellent a gift of knowledge in 
the Scriptures, move me to do anything against my conscience ?’ —with many 
other words, which were too long to write.” 

For nearly a year nothing more is heard on this topic from Vaughan. 
But, from a letter to Lord Cromwell in 1531, it appears that what he 
had already done had effected nothing but to prejudice his own inter¬ 
ests at court, and that Sir Thomas More was as busy in the measures 
against Tyndale, as in the persecutions at home. 

A subsequent letter places before us in a vivid light the conflict of 
opinion then agitating England, the mean and cruel policy employed 
to bring it to an end, and the triumphant spread of truth against all 
opposition. The noble sentiments of these extracts place Stephen 
Vaughan far above the greatest of his employers. 

“ If Constantyne* have accused me to be of the Lutheran sect, a fautor and 
setter-forth of erroneeous and suspected works, I do not thereat marvel, for two 

* Constantine was accused as a heretic, and as engaged in the transportation 
of books, in 1528. That year he fled to Brabant, where he supported himself by 
his profession, having been bred a surgeon. In the year 1531, having ventured 


MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 


155 


causes specially. One is, for that my Lord Chancellor, in his examination of the 
said George and of all other men (as I am credibly informed), being brought be¬ 
fore him for cases of heresy, doth deeply inquire to know what may be said of 
me ; and in the examination thereof showeth evident and clear desire in his 
countenance and behavior, to hear something of me whereby an occasion of evil 
might be fastened against me ; which, no doubt, shall soon be espied in the 
patient whom he examineth—who perceiving his desire in that behalf, and trust- 
by accusing of me, to escape and avoid his present danger, of pure frailty 
and weakness, spareth not to accuse the innocent. The other is, for that George, 
besides the imminent peril and danger in which he was, abiding prisoner in my 
Lord’s house, was vehemently stirred and provoked. What with the remem¬ 
brance of his poor wife remaining here, desperate, bewashed with continual tears, 
and pinched with hourly sorrow, sighs, and mourning, and the sharp and bitter 
threatenings of his poor (state) and condition, likely to be brought unto an ex¬ 
treme danger of poverty ; and more hard than the first, by the excess of his 
misery, to accuse whom they had longed for, rather than to be tied by the leg 
with a cold and heavy iron like a beast—as appeared by the shift he made to 
undo the same and escape such torture and punishments. Will not these perils, 
fears, punishments, make a son forget the father which begat him ? And the 
mother that bear him, and fed him with her breasts ? If they will, who should 
(wonder) though he would accuse me, a thousand times less dear to him than 
father or mother, to rid him out of the same ? 

“ Would God it might please the King’s Majesty to look into these kinds of 
punishments ; which in my poor opinion, threateneth more hurt to his realm than 
those that be his ministers to execute the same tortures and punishments do think 
or conjecture : and by this reason only—It shall (will) constrain his subjects in 
great number to forsake his realm, and to inhabit strange regions and countries, 
where they will practise not a little hurt to the same. Yea, and whereas they 
(the King’s ministers) think that tortures, punishments and death, will be a mean 
to rid the realm of erroneous opinions, and bring men in such fear that they will 
not once be so hardy to speak or look, be you assured, and let the King’s Grace 
be therefore advertised at my mouth, that his highness (shall) will duly prove 
that in the end it will cause the sect to wax greater, and those errors to be more 
plenteously sowed in his realm than ever afore. For who have so mightily sowed 
those errors as those persons which, for fear of tortures and death, have fled his 
realm ? Will they not, by driving men out of his realm, make the rownt (irrup¬ 
tion) and company greater in strange countries, and will not many do more than 
one or two ? Will not four write where one wrote afore ? Counsel you the 
King’s Highness, as his true subject, to look upon this matter, and no more to 
trust to other men’s policies, which threateneth, in mine opinion, the weal of his 
realm ; and let me no longer be blamed nor suspected for my true saying. 

“ That I write I know to be true ; and daily do see experience of that I now 
write, which, between you and me, I have often said and written, though perad- 
venture you have little regarded it. But tarry a while and you will be learned by 
experience. I see it begun already. 

into England, he fell into the hands of Sir Thomas More, who subjected him to 
a harsh imprisonment in his own mansion ; using his leisure to extract from the 
poor man, by alternate threats and promises, information against his brethren 
abroad and all who were suspected of favoring them. 



ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


156 

« To some men it will seem, by this my manner of writing, that I being (as 
they suppose, and as I have been falsely accused to be) one of the sect, do write 
in this manner because I would that both I and the same sect should be suffered 
without punishment. Nay truly—But rather I would that an evil doer should be 
charitably punished, and in such manner as he might thereby be won with other, 
than lost with a great many. And let his Majesty be further assured, that he will 
with no policy nor with no threatenings of tortures and punishments take away 
the opinions of his people till his Grace shall fatherly and lovingly reform the 
clergy of his realm. For there springeth the opinion. From thence riseth the 
grudge of his people. Out of that men take and find occasions to complain. If 
I say truth let it be for such received. If otherwise, I protest, before God and 
the world, that whatsoever I here write, I mean therein nothing but honor, glory 
and surety of my only Prince and sovereign, and the public weal of his realm.” 

The next year discovers a new bailiff in pursuit of Tyndale, Sir 
Thomas Elyot, Ambassador from Henry to the Emperor. The ran¬ 
corous hatred of the King and the straits to which the reformer was 
reduced by his persecution, appear from the following reference to it in 
a letter addressed March 14th, 1532, to the Duke of Norfolk, then 
Prime Minister of England : 

“ My duty remembered, with most humble thanks unto your Grace, that it 
pleased you so benevolently to remember me unto the King’s Highness, concern¬ 
ing my return into England. Albeit the King willeth me, by his Grace’s letters, 
to remain at Brussels some space of time for the apprehension of Tyndale, which 
somewhat minisheth my hope of soon return ; considering that like as he is in 
wit moveable, semblably so is his person uncertain to come by. And, as far as I 
can perceive, hearing of the King’s diligence in the apprehension of him, he 
withdraweth him into such places where he thinketh to be farthest out of danger. 
In me there shall lack none endeavor. Finally, as I am all the King’s except my 
soul, so shall I endure all that shall be his pleasure, employing my poor life glad¬ 
ly in that which may be to his honor or wealth of his realm.” 

But this attempt was as unsuccessful as the former. The perse¬ 
cuted exile was not without friends to warn him of approaching dan¬ 
ger, and to afford him secure refuge in the hour of need. By many 
members of that honorable and powerful body, the company of Eng¬ 
lish Merchant Adventurers, he was venerated as an apostle. As we 
have seen in the case of Vaughan, it was impossible for a man of any 
generosity of soul to come, even briefly, into contact -with Tyndale 
without a deep impression of his exalted moral worth ; and we need 
not wonder that with those who had enjoyed the privilege of daily in¬ 
tercourse with him for years this feeling should rise into an affec¬ 
tionate enthusiasm which would risk everything to save him. A 
beautiful picture it is which Foxe gives of his course of life in Ant¬ 
werp and of his relations to his noble countrymen : 


MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 


IS? 


“ First, he was a man very frugal, and spare of body, a great student and earn¬ 
est laborer in the setting forth of the Scriptures of God. He reserved or hallowed 
to himself two days in the week, which he named his pastime, Monday and Sat¬ 
urday. On Monday he visited all such poor men and women as were fled out of 
England, by reason of persecution, into Antwerp, and these, once well under¬ 
standing their good exercises and qualities, he did very liberally comfort and re¬ 
lieve ; and in like manner provided for the sick and diseased persons. On the 
Saturday he walked round about the town, seeking every corner and hole where 
he suspected any poor person to dwell, and where he found any to be well occu¬ 
pied and yet over-burdened with children, or else were aged and weak, those also 
he plentifully relieved. And thus he spent his two days of pastime, as he called 
them. And truly his alms were very large, and so they might well be ; for his 
exhibition that he had yearly of the English merchants at Antwerp, when living 
there, was considerable, and that for the most part he bestowed upon the poor. 
The rest of the days of the week he gave wholly to his book,wherein he most dili¬ 
gently travailed. When the Sunday came, then went he to some one merchant’s 
chamber or other, whither came many other merchants, and unto them would he 
read some one parcel of Scripture ; the which proceeded so fruitfully, sweetly, 
and gently from him, much like to the writing of John the Evangelist, that it was 
a heavenly comfort and joy to the audience to hear him read the Scripture : like¬ 
wise after dinner, he spent an hour in the same manner. He was a man without 
any spot or blemish of rancor or malice, full of mercy and compassion, so that no 
man living was able to reprove him of any sin or crime ; although his righteous¬ 
ness and justification depended not thereupon before God ; but only upon the 
blood of Christ and his faith upon the same.” 

But toward the close of 1534, or the beginning of the following year, 
a new plot was devised against his life, which ultimately proved suc¬ 
cessful. It is a noticeable fact that in the two previous attempts, 
when Sir Thomas More was all powerful in the royal counsels, the 
King appears as chief mover ; whereas his name is not mentioned in 
connection with the present one. He may not, indeed, have relin¬ 
quished his own efforts for the same object ; but this seems to have 
been an independent plan, contrived by the leaders of the popish party 
against their most dreaded opponent. Probably they were deterred 
from seeking Henry’s aid by a fear of the influence of Anne Boleyn. 
Whatever the cause, the fact is certain, that they attempted to effect 
their object, not through him, but through his mortal enemy the Em¬ 
peror, who, as the relative and protector of Katherine, was also the 
patron of the disaffected English clergy. 

The emissaries now despatched on this business were better chosen 
than those formerly employed by the King ; being merely hired villains, 
with no character to lose and no political duties to divert them from 
their errand. There were two of them ; the one a young man of 
prepossessing exterior, but a needy and profligate adventurer, named 
Henry Phillips. He was to play the part of gentleman. The other, 


158 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Gabriel Donne, a monk of Stratford Abbey, was to pass as his ser¬ 
vant, but was, no doubt, the real director of the enterprise. They 
were plentifully supplied by their employers with money wherewith to 
keep up appearances, and to apply bribery wherever needful. 
Donne first went to Louvain, probably to consult with that enlightened 
Faculty of Theology which had once been so shocked at the impiety 
of Erasmus, and had driven Dorpius from the professor’s chair. Here 
he was joined by Philips, and both proceeded to Antwerp. 

Tyndale was at that time residing with an English merchant of that 
city, by the name of Pointz ; a gentleman of ancient Norman family, 
and of high connections in his native land ; but far more honorably 
distinguished as the lover of the Scriptures and the friend of Tyndale. 
As Tyndale’s company was in great request with the other English 
merchants, and he was often invited to their tables, where also Henry 
Phillips, as a rich fellow-countrjunan, found easy access, the conspira¬ 
tor and his victim soon met. The engaging manners and professed 
friendship of the young man soon won the confidence of the unsus¬ 
pecting reformer. Not only did he invite him repeatedly to the 
mansion of his host, but even induced M. Pointz to receive him as a 
lodger. The intimate daily intercourse thus established was diligently 
used by the base man to become acquainted with everything in Tyn¬ 
dale’s life and writings which could subserve the purpose of his em¬ 
ployers. 

Having gained all necessary information, Phillips now began cau¬ 
tiously to take steps for bringing the matter to an end. It was his 
design at first, as is supposed, to effect the object through the Antwerp 
city government. In this view he sounded M. Pointz, as he probably 
did others of his countrymen, to ascertain if he could be bribed into 
concurrence with such a measure. Such was the interpretation after¬ 
ward given to mysterious hints from Phillips, which at the time 
awakened no suspicion. For the idea that any one could dream of 
bribing Thomas Pointz to betray his friend never entered the thoughts 
of the noble merchant till events brought their own explanation. 

Failing in this plan he made no application to the Antwerp magis¬ 
tracy, but proceeded to the court of Brussels, about thirty miles dis¬ 
tant. As King Henry, on account of his quarrel with the Emperor, 
had no ambassador at Brussels, Phillips had free scope ; and by con¬ 
necting his designs against Tyndale with treasonable propositions 
against his own sovereign, he succeeded in obtaining a favorable hear¬ 
ing. On his return to Antwerp, the Emperor’s attorney accompanied 
him for the purpose of apprehending Tyndale. Yet even the imperial 
officials dared not seize an Englishman openly in this free city, where 


MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 


159 


English influence was so powerful, and several days passed by without 
action. But at length Pointz left home to be absent a month or six 
weeks at the great annual fair at Barrow, and the favorable moment 
was now judged to have come. The remainder of the story is best 
told in the words of Foxe. 

“ In the time of his absence Henry Phillips came again to Antwerp, to the 
house of Pointz, and coming in, spake with his wife, asking her for Master 
Tyndale, and whether he would dine there with him ; saying—‘ what good meat 
shall we have ?’ She answered, ‘ such as the market will give.’ Then went he 
forth again, as it was thought, to provide, and set the officers whom he brought 
with him from Brussels, in the street, and about the door. Then about noon he 
came again, and went to Master Tyndale, and desired him to lend him forty 
shillings ; * for,’ said he, ‘ I lost my purse this morning, coming over at the 
passage, between this and Mechlin.’ So Tyndale took him forty shillings, which 
was easy to be had of him, if he had it ; for in the wily subtilties of this world 
he was simple and inexpert. 

“ Then said Phillips, ‘ Master Tyndale, you shall be my guest here this day. 
‘ No,’ said Tyndale, ‘ I go forth this day to dinner, and you shall go with me, and 
be my guest, where you shall be welcome.’ So when it was dinner time, Master 
Tyndale went forth with Phillips, and at the going forth of Pointz’s house was 
a long, narrow entry, so that two could not go in a front. Tyndale would have 
put Phillips before him, but Phillips would in no wise, for that he pretended to 
show great humanity, (courtes)’’). So Master Tyndale, being a man of no great 
stature, went before, and Phillips, a tall, comely person, followed behind him ; 
who had set officers on either side of the door on two seats, who being there 
might see who came in the entry ; and coming through the same, Phillips point¬ 
ed with his finger over Master Tyndale’s head down to him, that the officers who 
sat at the door might see that it was he whom they should take, as the officers 
afterward told Pointz, and said, when they had laid him in prison, that they 
pitied to see his simplicity, when they took him. Then they brought him to the 
Emperor’s attorney, where he dined. Then came he, the attorney, to the house 
of Pointz, and sent away all that was there of Master Tyndale’s, as well his 
books as other things, and from thence Tyndale was had to the castle of 
Vilvorde, eighteen English miles from Antwerp.” 

No sooner was this infamous transaction known than Tyndale’s 
friends in Antwerp exerted their utmost in his behalf. By their influ¬ 
ence the House of Merchant Adventurers was induced to make a 
formal application to the court of Brussels for his release. But 
through the indifference or timidity of their chief officer, to whom the 
business was entrusted, nothing resulted from the attempt. An effort 
was also made to secure interest for him at the English Court, but 
with no decisive effect.* Alarmed for his revered friend, Thomas 


* Thebald, at this time the confidential agent of Cranmer and Crumwell on 
the continent, makes report to his employers, in the manner of one who had 


l6o ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 

Pointz now resolved to try what could be done by his personal energy. 
He had a brother in England, John Pointz, who had been for twenty 
years in familiar intercourse with King Henry and his court, and was 
now a member of the royal household. To him he directed a letter, 
in which he boldly charges Tyndale’s imprisonment upon the Papists, 
as part of a deep-laid plot for the subversion of his Majesty's govern¬ 
ment, and of the religious reforms which it supported ; and he urges 
his brother, either in his own person or through others, to bring the 
matter directly before the King. The honest warmth and fearlessness 
of this letter, equally free from pretension and servility, is an honora¬ 
ble index not only of the worth of the man, but of the spirit of the 
class to which he belonged. England, in the sixteenth century, had 
no such nobles as those princely-hearted merchants of hers, who had 
dared to search the Scriptures for themselves ; none so free in thought, 
so bold in word, yet none so loyal to their King and country. 

This letter seems to have made a decided impression. Before the 
close of the next month a messenger was dispatched from the English 
court, less perhaps from the wish to befriend Tyndale, though this was 
the ostensible object, than to look after those traitorous Englishmen 
mentioned by Pointz, as so busy at Louvain ; one of whom was 
already known, from Thebald’s letter, as engaged in treasonable prac¬ 
tices against the King. The relations of the two governments not 
allowing of direct communication, letters were addressed by Crumwell 
to two distinguished persons who had great influence at the court of 
Brussels, requesting their friendly offices in the matter. Having with 
great difficulty obtained the desired letters, Pointz himself repaired 
with them to England, and after a month’s detention for Crumwell’s 
dispatches in reply, returned with all haste to Brussels. Here he laid 
his papers before the Council and awaited its decision. This was 
about the first of November, 1535. 

1 hings now looked very favorable for the venerable prisoner, and 
Pointz was in daily expectation that he would be delivered into his cus¬ 
tody, when he was himself apprehended by the Procurer-General, and 
placed in strict confinement. This was the work of the infamous 
Phillips. Perceiving how the case was likely to turn, he could think 
of no better device than boldly to accuse Pointz as an adherent of Tyn¬ 
dale, and the sole mover, from mere personal and party motives, of 
the measures for his release. On this charge he had been seized ; and 

been especially directed by them to watch the case.—(Anderson, vol. I. , pp. 
423-25). To what can the change in Crumwell’s policy be ascribed, but the in' 
fluence of Anne Boleyn ? But he was still too selfish, as Cranmer was too timid, 
to risk the favor of Henry by any direct and earnest efforts in behalf of Tyndale, 



MARTYRDOM OF TYNDALE. 


161 


thus the good man, instead of welcoming his friend to liberty, found 
himself a prisoner, and in imminent hazard of his life. 

An imprisonment of more than three months followed, during which 
every obstacle was thrown in the way of his defence ; while he was 
loaded with enormous prison charges, for which immediate payment 
was demanded without allowing him opportunity to procure the means. 
Satisfied that his temporal ruin, if not his death, was resolved on, 
Pointz determined to use his best chance for life and justice by mak¬ 
ing his escape. This he effected under cover of night ; and being 
well acquainted with the country, he eluded his pursuers, and found 
his way safely into England. 

This is the last attempt on record for the deliverance of Tyndale. 
Could Pointz have effected anything after his return, it is safe to con¬ 
clude that he would have done it at every personal risk. Cranmer 
and Crumwell were still high in power ; but she was gone, whose 
womanly and queenly heart had once infused somewhat of its own 
generous warmth and courage into theirs, and who had pleaded with 
the capricious King for truth and its champions. The Reformer was 
now abandoned to the will of his enemies. 

The imprisonment of Tyndale seems not to have been as harsh as 
that to which heretics had been subjected in England. By his pious 
efforts the jailor and his family were led to embrace the truth ; and 
in their kind Christian ministry did much, no doubt, to cheer his 
spirits and soften the hardships of his situation. He was allowed the 
use of writing materials, and sustained an animated controversy with 
the Theological Faculty of Louvain. This was permitted, however, 
for the purpose of drawing from him an avowal of sentiments which 
might serve as a basis for his trial and condemnation. For under the 
imperial rule, even heretics could not be dealt with in the summary 
style so much in vogue with Sir Thomas More and the English bishops. 

About a year and three-quarters thus passed away. At length, all 
things being ripe, his enemies pushed the matter to a conclusion. 

In 1530, a very stringent decree against heresy had been issued at 
Augsburg under the Emperor’s authority, directed particularly against 
the doctrine of justification by faith. This still remained in full force. 
Tyndale had long been known as the chief expositor of the obnoxious 
doctrine ; and his late controversy with the Doctors of Louvain had 
given occasion to a most explicit statement of his views. Now the 
Privy Council of Brussels, which had full jurisdiction in all cases—re¬ 
ligious as well as political—was completely under the dominion of the 
priests, having for its president a high dignitary of the Romish Church 
and a bitter opposer of the truth—the Bishop of Palermo. The leign- 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


162 

ing Princess herself was a mere tool of the monks. Two years before, 
Erasmus had said that “ those animals were omnipotent at the court 
of Brussels.” Such being the case—to say nothing of the gold with 
which Phillips was so liberally supplied for enlightening the eyes of 
the ministers of justice—it would have been marvellous, indeed, had 
the unfriended prisoner received a favorable sentence. All the forms 
of justice were allowed him. He declined, however, the offered assist¬ 
ance of an advocate and procurer, saying that he would answer for 
himself. This he was permitted to do ; and we may be sure that his 
judges that day listened to an exposition of truth such as they had sel¬ 
dom heard. But they had met to condemn, not to be convinced ; 
and though unable to confute his arguments, it was easy to prove him 
guilty under the decree of Augsburg. 

On Friday, the sixth of October, 1536, William Tyndale was led 
forth to die. Having been bound to the stake, he was first strangled 
and his dead body then burned to ashes. His last words, “ uttered 
with fervent zeal and in a loud voice were these : ‘ Lord, open the 
King of England’s eyes ! ’ ” 

Thus perished, a victim to priestcraft, the purest of England’s pat¬ 
riots and the crown of her martyrs—the best and greatest man of his 
time ! 


CHAPTER XXII. 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 

Nothing is more common with the enemies of truth than to sup¬ 
pose, when the champion of a great principle is struck down, that the 
principle itself is dead. Especially does the history of Bible transla¬ 
tion abound with exemplifications of this remark. Every step of 
progress in this foundation work of Christian philanthropy—without 
which all others are but as blossoms without a root, and out of which 
all others spring by an inevitable law—has been marked with martyrs. 
Not all martyrs at the stake, like Frith and Tyndale ; but martyrs as 
to their peace, their reputation, the good will and respect of their fel¬ 
low-men. And what have the “ haters of light” accomplished by such 
a policy ? Nothing, except to verify that saying of our Lord, in 
which, just before his own bitter and shameful death, he announced 
the prime law of growth in his kingdom : “ Except a corn of wheat 
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth 
forth much fruit.” 

For ten years Tyndale had been subjected to a life of extremest 
privation and suffering. An exile and a fugitive, with no certain 
home, pinched with poverty, reviled as a traitor, heretic, and blas¬ 
phemer, hunted like a venomous reptile from one hiding place to 
another, he confessed, patient and heroic as he was, that “ very death 
were more pleasant to him than life.” And now, the purpose of his 
persecutors was accomplished. The great heart, and busy brain, and 
hand that never tired in the service of humanity, were turned to ashes, 
and scattered to the winds. This was their hour, and the power of 
darkness. That light blotted out, and they fancied that the hated in¬ 
fluences it had called into being would perish with it. 

At this point let us look back a moment, and see how far their past 
experience justified such a hope. 

It was at the beginning of the year 1526 that the first copies of Tyn- 
dale’s New Testament appeared in England. From the moment of 
its discovery in the hands of the young men at Oxford, ecclesiastical 
proscription, sustained by civil statutes, ” dreadful and penal, had 
been directed against it. Those convicted of the crime of reading, 
hearing, or circulating it, were fined, whipped, imprisoned, subjected 


164 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


to disgraceful public penance ; and if found unyielding, were burned 
at the stake. Merchant ships were searched for it ; international laws 
forbade its importation ; it was bought up wholesale in foreign mar¬ 
kets ; great church dignitaries presided over the bonfires in which it 
was consumed, as at a solemn religious festival. This policy had been 
pursued with a thoroughness and persistency unsurpassed in the his- 
tory of religious persecution. And what was the result ? 

In 1529 a fifth edition of the proscribed book was circulating in Eng¬ 
land. Such had been the demand for the Word of God awakened 
within the space of three years ! In 1530, the year of Tunstal’s great 
Bible-burning, the people were reading the Pentateuch, as well as the 
New Testament ; and in the words of Hall, “ Bibles came thick and 
threefold into England.” Two years later, Sir Thomas More speaks 
of them as coming in “by the whole vats-full at once.” In 1534 the 
Convocation itself was compelled, by influences which had become 
too strong to be overborne, to ask that the King would order a trans¬ 
lation of the Scriptures into English. In the Convocation of 1536, 
the lower House sent to their superiors a “ protestation,” respecting 
the alarming spread of heresy in the province of Canterbury. The 
specifications of false teaching amount to sixty-seven, and afford a 
most gratifying evidence of the progress of truth. The service of the 
Mass, worship of saints, auricular confession, penance, absolution, 
purgatory, are conceded to have become matters of common question. 

I he fifth item declares, that “it is commonly preached, taught, and 
spoken, that all ceremonies accustomed in the Church, which are not 
clearly expressed in Scripture, must be taken away, because they are 
men’s inventions.” The fifty-sixth complains, that “by preaching, 
the people have been brought into'the opinion and belief that nothing 
is to be believed except it can be proved expressly from Scripture !” 
But still more striking, as an index of the times, is the language to 
which the assembled bishops were obliged to listen from one of their 
own number Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford. Stokesly having 
offered to confute the new teaching respecting the sacraments—not 
only by Scripture, but by the old doctors and by the schoolmen also— 1 
Fox rose, and after referring to the King’s command that they should 
appeal in this matter to the Floly Scriptures alone, he addressed his 
brethren in these noble words : 

Think ye not that we can, by any sophistical subtilties, stoal out of the 
world again the light which every man doth see. Christ hath so lightened the 
world at this time that the light of the Gospel hath put to flight all misty dark¬ 
ness ; and it will shortly have the higher hand of all clouds, though we resist in 
vain never so much. The lay people do now know the Holy Scripture better 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 


I6 5 

than many of us. And the Germans have made the text of the Bible so plain 
and easy, by the Hebrew and Greek tongue, that now many things may be better 
understood, without any glosses at all, than by all the commentaries of the doc¬ 
tors. And, moreover, they have so opened these controversies by their writings 
that women and children may wonder at the blindness and falsehood that hath 
been hitherto. Wherefore, ye must consider earnestly what ye will determine 
of these controversies, that ye make not yourselves to be mocked and laughed to 
scorn of all the world ; and that ye bring them not to have this opinion of you, 
to think evermore hereafter that ye have not one spark of learning nor yet of 
godliness in you. And thus shall ye lose all your estimation and authority with 
them which before took you for learned men and profitable members unto the 
commonwealth of Christendom. For that which you do hope upon, that there 
was never heresy in the Church so great but that process of time, with the power 
and authority of the Pope, hath quenched it—it is nothing to the purpose. But 
ye must turn (change) your opinion, and think this surely, that there is nothing 
so feeble and weak, so that it be true, but it shall find place, and be able to stand 
against all falsehood. 

“ Truth is the daughter of time, and time is the mother of truth. And whatso¬ 
ever is besieged of truth cannot long continue ; and upon whose side truth doth 
stand that ought not to be thought transitory, or that it will ever fall. All things 
consist not in painted eloquence, and strength, or authority. For the truth is of 
so great power, strength and efficacity, that it can neither be defended with 
words, nor be overcome with any strength ; but after she hath hidden herself 
long, at length she putteth up her head and appeareth.” 

Stokesly’s impatient reply to this and similar speeches, contained 
an undesigned, but most satisfactory confirmation of what Fox had 
asserted. “ Let us grant,” said the incensed prelate, “ that the sacra¬ 
ments maybe gathered out of the word of God ; yet are ye far deceived 
if ye think that there is none other word of God but that which every 

SOUTER AND COBBLER DOTH READ IN HIS MOTHER TONGUE !” Be¬ 
fore the close of the Convocation, a second petition to the King was 
agreed on, praying his Majesty, “ that he would graciously permit the 
use of the Scriptures to the laity, and that a new translation of it 
might be forthwith made for that end and purpose.” A wonderful 
change indeed since the day when it was safe for them to declare all 
translations into the vernacular unlawful, and when the Scriptures were 
themselves denounced as heretical and decreed “ to be clean forbid¬ 
den and banished forever out of the realm of England !” Not that 
the Romish Bishops were any more cordial in their hearts to such a 
measure than they had ever been ; but the advocates of the Bible had 
now become the stronger party. Their influence was indeed still suffi¬ 
cient to prevent the recognition of either of the existing translations, 
and they trusted by a “ masterly inactivity” in preparing a new one, 
to put far off the evil day. But.they had at least been compelled to 
concede, by repeated formal acts, the fundamental principle, that it 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


166 

is safe and right to give the laity the Scriptures in their mother tongue. 
The people, however, did not wait for them. From the year 1530, 
Tyndale’s New Testament had been coming into England at the rate 
of two editions annually ; and at least nine or ten editions crowned 
the year of his martyrdom. 

Such had been the fruit of their opposition while the man still 
lived, who had been instrumental in giving the chief impulse to this 
mighty movement. Let us now see what they accomplished by his 
death. 

The events now to be related seem so strange, so far out of the 
common range of probabilities, that even the most skeptical can 
hardly fail to discern in them an unseen Power, carrying headlong the 
counsels of the crafty, and turning to its own beneficent ends the 
selfish policy of ambitious statesmen and the caprices of a cruel des¬ 
pot. To understand this part of our history a little previous explana¬ 
tion is required. 

At the fall of Wolsey, the prospects of Thomas Crumwell, the most 
attached and distinguished of his adherents, seemed to have received 
their death blow. From this fate he extricated himself by a single 
step, equally bold and sagacious, and planted his foot securely on the 
ladder of political promotion. Two days before the meeting of Par¬ 
liament he left the residence of his fallen master, saying to one of the 
household : “ I shall make or mar ere I come again !” The very 
next day he obtained an interview with Henry, and suggested to him 
that daring line of policy, which in due time added to his royal title 
that of “ Supreme Head of the Church in England,” and reduced the 
proud clergy into the most submissive and most liberal of vassals. 
Another item of this great plan was the replenishment of the King’s 
coffers by the reduction of monasteries and confiscation of their trea¬ 
sure ; but this had been deferred for prudential reasons to the year 
1535, when the King’s necessities admitted of no farther delay. As a 
preliminary step, Crumwell—a layman and commoner, without high 
connections, or even an education to atone for want of rank—was, by 
an exercise of royal power, constituted the second man in the king¬ 
dom. By his office as the King’s “Vicegerent, Vicar-General, 
Commissary special and general,” he not only took rank next to the 
royal family, and controlled the secular affairs of the realm, but had 
the right, in the King’s absence, to preside in the Convocations of the 
clergy, and was Superior of all the monasteries. This appointment 
was followed by the visitation and suppression, in the most summary 
style, of all monasteries, amounting .to three hundred and seventy-six, 
whose income did not exceed £200 per annum ; thus augmenting the 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 167 

yearly royal revenue by the snug little sum of ,£75,200—equivalent to 
more than a million dollars of our time. 

This was very gratifying, but there were other consequences not so 
pleasant. Of course we can find no fault with the dissolution of these 
haunts of idleness and profligacy. But the wholesome measure was 
effected in a manner most unjust and inhuman. Talleyrand would 
have said it was worse than a crime ; it was a blunder ! Thousands 
of persons suddenly ejected from their comfortable homes, and turned 
loose upon the world with forty shillings in their hands, to seek living 
and shelter where they could, were not likely to be preachers of loy* 
alty, or of the religion under whose name they were persecuted. The 
honest heart of the people, moreover, ever sides with the oppressed. 
Suffering becomes virtue in their eyes. And they are right ; for 
cruelty, in whatever form, or upon whomsoever exercised, is the very 
spirit of the lower regions. The secular clergy had already tasted of 
the royal mercy ; the higher monasteries might securely count upon 
their own doom as near at hand. The result was just what might 
have been expected. In the month of October, 1536, a formidable 
insurrection burst forth, which threatened the country with all the 
horrors of a bloody civil war. In Lincolnshire the rising was twenty 
thousand strong ; in Yorkshire twice that number. 

By the firmness and energy of the government the movement was 
soon quelled ; but it had given formidable evidence that Popery’s 
tough roots still held fast to the English soil, and that it would re¬ 
quire more than laws of sequestration, or force of arms, to eradicate 
it. The keen eye of Crumwell saw what his master’s had failed to 
perceive—that the vicious weed which could not be torn out from the 
earth of which it had so long held sole occupancy, must be grown out 
by a yet stronger plant. Its hold must be loosened from beneath, or 
the work on the surface would be done only to be repeated. Behold, 
then, the unpitying persecutor of Tyndale, the unscrupulous and 
worldly statesman, whose self-exaltation was the god of his worship, 
making it one of his chief cares, amid the overwhelming toils of state, 
and the engrossing schemes of personal ambition, to provide the peo¬ 
ple with the Word of God ! In this is revealed, more strikingly than 
in his most brilliant strokes of policy, the penetrating intellect of this 
great practical genius. His ken went to the bottom of the elemental 
causes of national life, and discerned that the strength of the new 
order of things lay not in the external power of government, but in 
the moral sentiments and convictions of the people. 

Crumwell had already given his countenance and aid to the efforts 
of Cranmer and Coverdale. But henceforward we perceive in his 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


168 

movements in this direction, the unwavering energy of a clear and 
settled purpose. A Bible, to be placed by authority in every church 
in England, to be read in public as a stated part of the religious in¬ 
struction of the people, while free access to it should be allowed to 
rich and poor, who might desire to read it for themselves—such from 
this time became one of the prime objects of this great polilician. 
From what follows we should judge that he had converted Henry to 
the same view ; and in Archbishop Cranmer he would find an earnest 
and efficient coadjutor, from purer motives. 

But how was this Bible to be obtained ? It was hopeless to look 
for one from the bishops ; Cranmer’s, which from the very method 
employed in preparing it was unfit for a standard version, had fallen 
to the ground ; Coverdale’s was under a cloud, on account of its con¬ 
nection with the murdered queen. For the version which is to be¬ 
come the first authorized English Bible, we must look away 
from England, to the man who had so recently suffered martyrdom 
for having given it to her people. 

We have no direct information in regard to the progress which Tyn- 
dale had made in translating the Old Testament, at the time he was 
imprisoned in the castle of Vilvorde. Only the Pentateuch and Jonah 
had been given to the world ; and it is generally supposed, on the 
authority of Hall, a contemporary chronicler, that the translation had 
proceeded no farther than to the close of the historical books. But 
there are certain indisputable facts which it is difficult to harmonize 
with this supposition. 

Soon after he was thrown into prison, a folio edition of the entire 
Bible, containing his translations already published, and completed 
from his manuscripts or some other source, was commenced in Ger¬ 
many by his friend and fellow exile, John Rogers. It was finished 
within a year after his death, earl yin the summer of 1537, and pub¬ 
lished under the assumed name of Thomas Matthew, hence called 
Matthew's Bible. But the editor claimed it for his friend, by insert¬ 
ing his initials, W. T. in conspicuous ornamental letters at the end 
of the Old Testament.* Why else should he have placed it there ; or 
on what other ground could the act be defended from the charge of 
fraud ? The plea that Tyndale had not had time to complete the 
work is not sustained by sufficient evidence. Four years had elapsed 
between the publication of the Pentateuch and his imprisonment ; and 
though his pen was indeed busy in other ways we have no reason to 
think he had, on this account, laid aside that which he considered pre- 

* His New Testament was too well known to need any such index to its author. 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 


169 


eminently his life-work. His nearly two years’ imprisonment would 
most naturally have been devoted to its completion ; and viewed in 
connection with John Rogers’ undertaking, we can hardly doubt it 
was so. The similarity of this portion of Matthew’s Bible to that of 
Coverdale (published in 1535), has given rise to the belief that the 
version of the latter had furnished the books which Tyndale had not 
been able to translate. But, on the other hand, there are striking 
variations from that version ; and since Coverdale had adopted into it 
Tyndale’s well known translation of Jonah, verbatim , it is quite as 
reasonable to suppose that, during the period he was abroad preparing 
his Bible, he had access to the manuscripts of Tyndale. But, however 
this question may be decided, the larger and more important part of 
the newly edited version was, without dispute, the work of the mar¬ 
tyred reformer, the very work which for ten years had been pro¬ 
scribed in England. 

In the circumstances of its introduction into the kingdom, we see 
evidences of plan and concert, not to be mistaken. It had been about 
half carried through the press by private contributions of friends of 
the Gospel, when two prominent English printers—Grafton and Whit¬ 
church—came forward, and assumed the cost and risk of completing 
it. As soon as it left the press, Grafton hastened over the sea with a 
single copy for Archbishop Cranmer. Finding on his arrival that the 
Primate had just quitted London on account of the plague, he 
hastened after him to Forde, his country residence, in Kent. This 
could not have been before the 1st or 2d of August, since Cranmer 
was still on duty in London the 29th of July.* Yet on the 4th of 
August he was prepared to endorse the entire translation and in the 
warmest terms to recommend its adoption as the Bible to be author¬ 
ized by his Majesty for use in the churches and for universal diffusion 
among the people. His letter on the subject to Lord Crumwell is as 
follows : 

“ My especial good Lord, after most hearty commendations unto your Lord- 
ship ; these shall be to signify unto the same that you shall receive by the bringer 
thereof a Bible both of a new translation and a new print, dedicated unto the 
King’s Majesty, as farther appeareth by a pistle unto his Grace in the beginning 
of the book, which, in mine opinion, is very well done ; and therefore I pray 
your Lordship to read the same. And as for the translation, so far as I have 
read thereof, I like it better than any other translation heretofore made ; yet not 
doubting that there may and will be found some fault therein, as you know no 
man ever did or can do so well, but it may from time to time be amended. 

“ And forasmuch as the book is dedicated unto the King’s Grace, and alsd 


* Anderson, vol. i., p. 573 - 


170 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


great pains and labor taken in setting forth of the same, I pray you, my Lord, 
that you will exhibit the book unto the King's Highness, and obtain of his Grace 
if you can, a license that the same may be sold and read of every person, with¬ 
out danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted to the con¬ 
trary, until such time that we, the bishops, shall set forth a better translation, 
which I think will not be till the day after doomsday ! And if you continue to 
take such pains for the setting forth of God’s Word as you do, although in the 
mean season you suffer some snubs and many slanders, lies, and reproaches for 
the same, yet one day He will requite all together. And the same word, as St. 
John saith, which shall judge every man at the last day, must needs show favor 
to them that now do favor it. Thus, my Lord, right heartily fare you well. At 
Forde, the 4th day of August, [1537.] Your assured ever.— T. Cantuarien .” 

The Vicar-General was no less prompt. While all the bishops had 
been dispersed by fear of the plague, he had remained at his post, 
apparently to see this matter safely through. The absence of all the 
opposing prelates left the field unobstructed, and he used the oppor¬ 
tunity with his usual decision. Within eight days from the date of 
the above letter, Cranmer acknowledges the receipt of information 
from his Lordship that he had exhibited the translation to his Majesty, 
and had obtained his full assent to what had been requested ! Thus 
in less than a fortnight from the first arrival of Tyndale’s whole Bible 
in England, it is decreed to be “ set forth with the King’s most 
gracious license and also, that it “be sold and read of every 
person, without danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance hereto¬ 
fore granted to the contrary !’’ 

The next year Crumwell, as “ Vicegerent unto the King’s High¬ 
ness,” issued the following “ injunctions” to the clergy, to be observed 
and kept, on pain of deprivation, sequestration of fruits, or such other 
coercion as to the King’s Highness, or his Vicegerent for the time 
being, shall seem convenient : 

First, “ That ye shall provide before the ensuing feast of the Nativity, (Decem¬ 
ber 25,) one book of the whole Bible, of the largest volume in English,* and 
the same set up in some convenient place within the said <;hurch, that ye have 
care of,where your parishioners may most conveniently resort to the same and 
read it ; the charges of which book shall be rateably borne between you, the 
parson and parishioners aforesaid —that is to say, the one half by you, the other 
half by them. 

Secondly, “That ye shall discourage no man, privily or apertly, [openly], 
from the reading or the hearing of the said Bible ; but shall expressly provoke,* 
stir, and exhort every person to read the same, as that which is the very lively 
word of God, that every Christian person is bound to embrace, believe, and follow, 
if they look to be saved ; admonishing them, nevertheless, to avoid all contention 

* Thus distinguishing Tyndale’s from the two editions of Coverdale now in 
the market, those being of smaller size.—Anderson, vol. ii., p. 34, Note. 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 


171 

and altercation therein, but to use an honest sobriety in their inquisition of the 
true sense of the same, and to refer the explication of the obscure places to men 
of higher judgment in the Scripture.” 

Nor did Crumwell’s efforts stop here. Already the Popish party 
had begun to rally. For a while the scales fluctuated—now to this 
side, now to that ; but at length settled in favor of Crumwell’s ene¬ 
mies. During the three years succeeding the time when he welcomed 
the vernacular Bible into England, all his powers were tasked to meet 
the strange and ever-shifting exigencies of the conflict. Through this 
entire period, he urged on the cause of Bible-translation and circula¬ 
tion, as if that were one of the essential conditions of his political sal¬ 
vation. In 1538, before the first edition of Tyndale’s Bible was ex¬ 
hausted, he had persuaded Henry to obtain from Francis I. permission 
for printing an edition of the English Bible in Paris, where it could 
be executed in much better style than in England. Thither he sent 
Coverdale and Bonner—then a loud advocate for vernacular transla¬ 
tions—to revise the version and superintend the press, providing on the 
most liberal scale everything necessary to the fullest success of the 
undertaking. At the end of six months the interference of the Inqui¬ 
sition stopped the work, and the revisers fled, with what they could 
save, to England. But Crumwell was not to be thus foiled. He dis¬ 
patched agents to Paris, who returned not only with the presses and 
types, but even with the French printers ; and in some six weeks the 
work was again progressing on English soil. This event gave a great 
impulse to the press and especially to the Bible interest in the king¬ 
dom ; so that not only the interrupted edition was successfully com¬ 
pleted, but it became the parent of many others, published in the 
heart of England. In the year 1539 no fewer than four editions of 
the entire Scriptures in English were issued under Crumwell’s imme¬ 
diate patronage. During this same period, moreover, he was encour¬ 
aging and aiding other translators to contribute their versions to the 
general stock ; thus in every way laboring to multiply Bibles among 
the people. 

A beautiful picture is given by Strype, in his Life of Cranmer,* of 
the influence of this diffusion and free use of the Scriptures. It was a 
jubilee among the poor of England when, for the first time in the 
national history, they could listen, from Sabbath to Sabbath, to “ the 
sweet and glad tidings of the Gospel,” without the fear of prisons, 
the scourge, and the stake. “It is wonderful,” he says, ‘‘to see 
with what joy this Book of God was received, not only among the 


* Page 91. 


172 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


learneder sort, and those that were noted for lovers of the Reforma¬ 
tion, but generally all England over, among all the vulgar and com¬ 
mon people ; and with what greediness God’s word was read, and 
what resort to places where the reading of it was. Everybody that 
could bought the book and busily read it ; or got others to read it to 
them, if they could not themselves ; and divers more elderly people 
learned to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked among the 
rest to hear portions of the Holy Scriptures read.” When had such 
an intellectual awakening of the masses ever been witnessed, in the 
whole history of the world, as the fruit of Popish policy ! If Crum- 
well was an unprincipled and ambitious man, he was, nevertheless, a 
wise legislator, and a true benefactor of the people. 

But the star which had shot so rapidly into the zenith, had long 
since culminated, and now suddenly sunk to rise no more. Henry’s 
popish counsellors had now wholly gained his ear ; and Crumwell, by 
forwarding the marriage with Anne of Cleves, to whom the King had 
taken an insuperable disgust, had incurred his master’s bitter resent¬ 
ment. On the tenth of June he was arrested on charge of high trea¬ 
son, and being condemned with scarcely the decent show of justice, 
a fate, alas, too well merited by his own dealings in similar cases, he 
was beheaded in the Tower, July 28, 1540. 

But as the death of Tyndale had not arrested the progress of this 
glorious cause, so neither did the fall of its illustrious patron. New 
editions of the English Bible still issued from the press, and Henry 
again and again repeated his injunctions for its use in the public ser¬ 
vice of religion. So possessed had he become with the idea of 
diffusing it among his people, that Bishops Tunstal and Heath, most 
bitter opposers of vernacular translation, were compelled by his 
authority to affix their names as editors to two impressions of the 
great Bible. Immediately after the publication of the injunctions of 
.1540, the bloody-hearted Bonner set up six large Bibles in St. Paul’s 
for the accommodation of those who wished to read, such a passport 
was zeal in the cause at that time, to royal favor. The eagerness with 
which the people embraced this opportunity shows, that with all the 
Bibles published, little had yet been done toward supplying the 
demand for the word of God. “ They came,” it is said, “ instantly 
and generally to hear the Scriptures read. Such as could read with a 
clear voice often had great numbers round them. Many sent their 
children to school, and carried them to St. Paul’s to hear.” Most 
interesting must have been the groups collected, Sabbath after Sab¬ 
bath, in the crypt of that ancient cathedral. The great folio Bibles, 
scattered at convenient distances through the vast, dim interior, each 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 


173 


chained to a massive pillar, the lamp above illuminating the reader 
and the black-letter page over which he bent, and the little congrega¬ 
tion gathered close around, formed an apt emblem of the condition of 
England generally at that time. 

This state of things could not long continue. The conflict between 
light and darkness, now approaching its termination, was not to close 
without another desperate struggle. Henry, in “ graciously” vouch¬ 
safing to his subjects the boon of reading the Scriptures, had not 
properly considered the danger that, while so doing, they might 
acquire the pernicious habit of thinking for themselves. Against this 
he had taken every possible precaution by connecting with permission 
to read and hear the Bible, strict charges to avoid all comment and 
discussion in respect to its contents ; and still more effectually by his 
Acts “ to establish Christian quietness and unity,” of which especially 
the one in 1539, known as the Six Articles, or more appropriately, as 
The Whip with six cords , was regarded as “an end of all contro¬ 
versy.” The doctrines enjoined by this statute were, 1. Transub- 
stantiation. 2. Communion under both kinds not necessary to salva¬ 
tion. 3. Priests may not marry, by the law of God. 4. "V ows of 
chastity (celibacy) binding. 5. Private masses to be retained. 
6. Auricular confession useful and necessary. Its penalties were : for 
denial of the first article, death at the stake, without privilege of 
abjuration ; for the five others, death as a felon, or imprisonment 
during his Majesty’s pleasure.* 

But it was beyond any human power to join two things so opposed 
in their natures as the study of the word of God and servile submis¬ 
sion to the will of man, in matters of religious faith. It is at the 
point where these rival influences meet in conflict, above all others, 
that the “ divinity within us” vindicates its heavenly origin, and the 
soul of the unlettered peasant, or of the timid woman, or even of the 
little child, rises up in the conscious dignity of a child of God, and 
claims here full equality with the proudest monarch. It was espe¬ 
cially in regard to the first of these prescribed articles, Transubstanti - 
ation , that the readers of the Bible found it impossible to harmonize 
their views with those of the King. As from the time of Wickliffe to 

* The same abject Parliament which authorized this bloody statute, assumed 
and made it law that Parliament was competent to condemn to death persons 
accused of high treason, without any previous trial or confession ; and then, by 
another law, passed over this power into the hands of Henry enacting that the 
King, with advice of his Council, might set forth proclamations, with pains and 
penalties in them, which were to be obeyed as if made by Act of Parliament. 
He was thus constituted sole proprietor of the lives and property of his subjects. 


174 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


the separation of England from Rome, the rejection of this doctrine 
had distinguished those who received the Scriptures as supreme 
authority, from those who acknowledged the supremacy of the Church 
with the pope for its head ; so had it ever since distinguished them 
from those who acknowledged the supremacy of the Church with the 
King for its head. It was the test-point in the trials of the Lollards 
both in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; and the blood of 
Bilney, Bainham, Frith, and many others, had flowed during this reign, 
as oblations to this monstrous dogma. So late as 1538, the learned 
and pious Lambert had perished for the same offence, after enduring 
a trial of “ cruel mocking,” at which Henry presided, in awful state^ 
clad all in white—the symbol of the spotless purity of his faith ! The 
passage of The Six Articles was the signal for a fresh onset upon 
the adherents of the Scriptures. The bishops, who were charged 
with the office of carrying the statute into effect, sprang like 
unleashed blood-hounds on the prey. Within fourteen days they had 
indicted five hundred persons in London alone ; and it was clear that 
the number of offenders would soon exceed the capacity of the city 
prisons. This was considerably more than Henry had asked of the 
zeal of his bishops ; for he wished to strike a wholesome terror into 
the community by a few examples, not to make a wholesale massacre 
of his subjects. By the advice of Crumwell (the year before his 
death), he repeated the expedient of Henry V. in a similar case ; and 
by a royal pardon, quashed the indictment, so that of the five hun¬ 
dred accused not one was brought to trial, and the fiendish attempt 
only served to bring out more distinctly the strength of the party it 
had sought to crush. Still the statute remained in force, and the war 
with the “ Sacramentarians” was waged, if not on so bold a scale 
with no less malignity, to the close of Henry’s reign. 

At length the King seems to have been convinced that he could not 
establish his own will as the standard of faith among his people, 
while they were allowed the use of the Bible. It was therefore 
enacted by Parliament in 1543, “ that all manner of books of the Old 
and New lestament in English, of Tyndale’s crafty, false, and untrue 
translation, should by authority of this Act clearly and utterly be 
abolished and extinguished, and forbidden to be kept and used in 
this realm, or elsewhere, in any of the King’s dominions.” 

And farther, “ that no manner of persons after the first of October, 
should take upon them to read openly to others, in any church or open as¬ 
sembly, within any of the King’s dominions, the Bible or any part of the 
Scripture in English unless he was so appointed thereunto by the Kino- 
or by any ordinary, on pain of suffering one month’s imprisonment.” 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 


175 


And farther. “ that no woman, except noble women and gentle 
women, might read the Bible to themselves alone ; and no artificers, 
apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, of the degrees of yeomen, hus¬ 
bandmen, or laborers were to read the Bible or New Testament to 
themselves or any other, privately or openly, on pain of one month’s 
imprisonment.” 

How vividly do these enactments mirror the times ; revealing the 
wide-spread and inextricable hold which the Bible had gained upon 
the English masses ! When “ apprentices, journeymen, servingmen, 
husbandmen, and laborers” had once learned to read the Bible, it 
was certain that no laws could recall it from the nation’s hands. So 
the imperious monarch found it ; for three years later this statute was 
followed by another still more sweeping, viz. “ that from hence¬ 
forth, no man, woman, or person, of what estate, condition, or degree 
he or they shall be, shall, after the last day of August next ensuing, 
receive, have, take, or keep in his or their possession, the text of the 
New Testament of Tyndale’s or Coverdale’s, nor any other that is 
permitted by the Act of Parliament, made in the session of Parlia¬ 
ment holden at Westminster, in the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth year 
of his Majesty’s most noble reign.” 

Eight days after the passage of this Act, July 16, 1546, the heroic 
Anne Askew perished with three companions at the stake, for refusing 
to acknowledge Henry’s Popish doctrine of the Mass. How entirely 
the reception of the Scriptures, as supreme authority, was identified 
with rejection of the special dogmas of his Roman-English church, is 
seen from the dying words of this intrepid woman : “ Finally, I be¬ 
lieve all those Scriptures to be true which he hath confirmed with his 
most precious blood. Yea, and as St. Paul saith, those Scriptures 
are sufficient for our learning and salvation, that Christ hath left here 
with us ; so that I believe we need no unwritten verities to rule 
his Church with. Therefore, look, what he hath said unto me with 
his own mouth in the Holy Gospel, that have I with God’s grace 
closed up in my heart ; and my full trust is, as David saith. that it 
shall be a lantern to my footsteps.” * 

On the 28th of January, 1547, Henry VIII. was summoned to 
meet the victims of his personal resentment and of his murderous 
religious zeal, a fearful host ! at the bar of the righteous Judge. His 
son Edward VI., the English Josiah, succeeded to the throne. The 
stream which had been for a while repressed burst forth with gath¬ 
ered strength ; and this short reign, less than six and a half years, 


Anderson, vol. ii., p. 198. 


176 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


was signalized by at least fourteen editions of the whole Bible, and 
thirty-six of the New Testament.* A brief interruption succeeded 
this period of prosperity, during the reign of Mary. But from that 
time to the present, a period of three hundred years, the Anglo-Saxon 
race has never seen the day when its rich and its poor might not read 
in their own tongue wherein they were born, unmolested by Church 
or State, the wonderful works of God ! 

THE PRINCIPLE HAD TRIUMPHED. 

Wickliffe gave England her first Bible ; Tyndale her first Bible 
translated from the original Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Thus 
was fully developed the great Protestant principle, announced by 
Wickliffe nearly a century and a half before. For the same principle 
which demands the Inspired Word as the sole standard of religious 
faith, demands also the most exact representation of it which it is 
possible to obtain. This is obvious on a moment’s thought. Every 
translation, however able and honest, is but a human reflection of 
God s revelation of truth, and as such, is liable to the imperfection 
which attaches to everything human. The philological principles of 
the translator may sometimes mislead him, or his religious creed may 
bias his judgment of words ; or, in process of time, through the vicis¬ 
situdes of language, or corruptions in the Church, renderings which 
were once a just expression of the original may come to convey a 
false meaning. These considerations apply with double force to a 
second-hand translation, every remove from the original making the 
conclusions proportionably unreliable. Hence Wickliffe’s version, 
venerable as the first English Bible, and endeared by the associations 
of a hundred years of persecution, was at once set aside on the 
appearance of another drawn directly from the inspired sources. 

But to accept any version, to stand for all time in place of the 
sacred originals, was contrary to the spirit of primitive English Chris¬ 
tianity. I he glass through which the grand outlines of truth could 
be discerned was dear for so much of the truth as it revealed ; an¬ 
other, which revealed more, was dearer still. We shall observe the 
influence of this spirit through the whole subsequent history of Bible 
translation in England. The Christian scholars of that age were fired 
with a generous, sacred emulation to render the People’s Bible a per¬ 
fect reflection of the inspired Word. In the track of Tyndale’s noble 
version sprang up a long line of revisions and translations, which were 
gratefully accepted by the Church of Christ as independent witnesses, 

f Anderson, vol. ii., p. 237. 


TRIUMPH OF THE PRINCIPLE. 1 77 

of whom one might correct the errors of another, and whose agreeing 
testimony made the truth doubly certain. 

But for the New Testament of Tyndale a peculiar honor was 
reserved. It furnished not only the basis, but, in great part, the sub¬ 
stance of all that followed. To a command of Greek learning sur¬ 
passed by none of his age, Tyndale added those higher qualities of a 
translator of the Scriptures so eminently possessed by his great pre¬ 
decessor, Wickliffe, a mind of large grasp and earnest force, illumi¬ 
nated by a heart which knew but the single sublime aim to ascertain 
the revealed will of God and make it worthily known to man. A 
mind so qualified for the task could not but express itself with a noble 
freedom, a simple majesty, in harmony with the inspired utterances of 
truth. The successors of Tyndale recognized in his translation that 
impress of the master spirit ; and while they corrected its errors with¬ 
out scruple by the increasing light of sacred scholarship, they trans¬ 
ferred the body of it, unchanged, into their own versions. Like a 
gem repeatedly new cut and polished, it has been handed down from 
generation to generation, the most precious heirloom of the English 
race ; and we, at this day, read in large portions of our common ver¬ 
sion the very words with which Tyndale clothed the Scriptures for the 
men of his own age, in those times of conflict and of blood.* 

* “ In the originality of Tyndale is included in a large measure the originality 
of our English Version. . . . His influence decided that our Bible should be 

popular and not literary, speaking in a simple dialect, and that so by its simplicity 
it should be endowed with permanence. He felt by a happy instinct the potential 
affinity between Hebrew and English ideas, and enriched our language and 
thought forever with the characteristics of the Semitic mind.”— Westcott's Hist, 
of the Eng. Bible , pp. 210-n.—T. J. C. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. 

Coverdale s Bible. 

This version deserves special notice, as one of the most marked 
.ndications of the new impulse in favor of vernacular translations 
effected by Tyndale’s early labors. It claims veneration, too, as the 
first translation of the whole Bible circulated in England. For, 
though strictly the offspring of the state of public opinion created by 
his greater contemporary, and commenced several years after the pub¬ 
lication of Tyndale’s New Testament and Pentateuch, Coverdale’s 
version made its appearance some two years prior to Rogers’ edition 
of Tyndale’s Bible. 

Miles Coverdale was educated at Cambridge, and was a pupil and 
intimate friend of Barnes, then the great ornament of the University 
in liberal learning, and the chief leader at Cambridge of the religious 
party, stigmatized by the Romanists as “ the new learning.” When 
Barnes was arrested by Cardinal Wolsey, Coverdale was one of those 
who stood faithfully by their teacher, following him to London, and 
assisted in preparing his defence. It is supposed that the favor of 
Crumwell, then a protege of Wolsey, secured him from the immediate 
consequences of so bold a step. But in 1528, having been accused of 
preaching against the confessional, the worship of images, and the 
doctrine of transubstantiation, he was obliged to withdraw from Eng¬ 
land, and his steps cannot be distinctly traced for several succeeding 
years. Foxe states that he joined Tyndale on the continent, and 
assisted him in the translation of the Pentateuch : but of this there 
is no reliable proof. 

It is not certain at what time he commenced his own translation. 
He seems to have been moved to the undertaking by a deep feeling of 
the need of the word of God in English as the only remedy for the 
moral wretchedness of the nation ; joined to a fear that Tyndale 
would not be able, under the heavy pressure of persecution, to com¬ 
plete the great work which he had begun. Yet such was his modest 
estimate of his own qualifications for such a task, that he would not, 
he avers, have assumed the responsibility, but for the urgent solicita¬ 
tions of those with whose wishes he felt bound to comply. In this, 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. 


179 

doubtless, he refers to his great friend and patron, Thomas Crum- 
well. 

In his prologue to the Christian reader, prefixed to his translation, 
he thus explains his feelings and motives : 

“ Considering how excellent knowledge and learning an interpreter of Scripture 
ought to have in the tongues, and pondering also mine own insufficiency therein, 
and how weak I am to perform the office of translator, I was the more loath to 
meddle with this work. Notwithstanding, when I considered how great pity it 
was that we should want it so long, and called to remembrance the adversity of 
them which were not only of ripe knowledge, but would also with all their hearts 
have performed that they begun, if they had not had impediment ; considering, 
I say, that by reason of their adversity, it could not so soon have been brought 
to an end as our most prosperous nation would fain have had it; these and other 
reasonable causes considered, I was the more bold to take it in hand. . . . But 
to say the truth before God, it was neither my labor nor desire to have this work 
put in my hand ; nevertheless it grieved me that other nations should be more 
plenteously provided for with the Scriptures in their mother tongue than we ; 
therefore when I was instantly required, though I could not do it as well as I 
would, I thought it yet my duty to do my best and that with a good will.” 

It has been argued that a variety of translations must necessarily 
endanger the unity of the faith. He meets this objection by an 
appeal to Christian history : 

“ Whereas some men think now that many translations make division in the 
faith and in the people of God, yet it is not so ; for it was never better with the 
congregation of God than when every church almost had the Bible of a sundry 
translation. Among the Greeks, had not Origen a special translation ? . . . 

Beside the seventy interpreters, is there not the translation of Aquila, of Theo- 
dotio, of Symachus and of sundry other ? Again, among the Latin men thou 
findest that every one almost used a special translation ; for insomuch as every 
bishop had the knowledge of tongues, he gave his diligence to have the Bible of 
his own translation. . . . Therefore ought it not to be taken as evil, that 

such men as have understanding now in our time exercise themselves in the 
tongues, and give their diligence to translate out of one language into another. 
Yea, we ought rather to give God thanks therefor, which through his spirit 
stirreth up men’s minds so as to exercise themselves therein. Would God it had 
never been left off after the time of St. Augustine ; then should we never have 
come into such blindness and ignorance and into such errors and delu¬ 
sions. ... 

Seeing then that this diligent exercise of translating doth so much good, and 
edifyeth in other languages, why should it do evil in ours? Doubtless like as all 
nations, in the diversity of speeches, may know one God in the unity of faith, 
and be one in love, even so may diverse translations understand one another, 
and that in the head articles and ground of our most blessed faith, though they 
use sundry words. Wherefore, we think we have great occasion to give thanks 
unto God that he hath opened unto his Church the gift of interpretation and of 
printing, and that there are at this time so many which with such diligence and 


i8o 


ENGLISH BIDLE TRANSLATION. 


faithfulness interpreted the Scripture to the honor of God and the edifying of 
his people.” 

Coverdale only claimed for his version, according to his title page, 
that it was translated out of “ Douch and Latin.” He speaks also 
of having had by him five several translations, and of having “ fol¬ 
lowed his interpreters.” He was a respectable Hebrew scholar, and 
doubtless had constant reference to the text of the original ; but he 
seems not to have felt sufficient reliance on his own scholarship to 
venture on a really independent translation. For the same cause his 
version compares ill with Tyndale’s in respect to style ; wanting that 
bold step and that rich expressiveness, which can only come from 
the actual contact of the translator’s mind with the thoughts he is to 
render in their original forms. Yet his version is, in the main, clear 
and correct, and in some passages shows a more felicitous rendering 
than any which came after. Its most serious fault is found in its con¬ 
formity, in some important particulars, to the Latin Vulgate. 

The King’s license had been obtained for this Bible ; and it was 
dedicated to him ” and his most dearest, just wife, Anne.” The de¬ 
cline of the Queen’s influence, and her fall soon after its appearance 
in England, threw a cloud for awhile over the enterprise. But after 
it had been long delayed in the hands of the bishops to whom Henry 
had committed it for examination, he at length demanded their 
opinion. They replied that it had many faults, ” But,” said he, 
“are there any heresies maintained thereby?” When they replied 
that there were none as they had perceived—“ Then in God’s name,” 
cried the impatient monarch, “ let it go abroad among our people.” * 
Subsequently, there is reason to believe, an injunction was issued by 
Crumwell for its use in churches ; but from some cause this never 
went into effect. The version found, however, considerable circula¬ 
tion, so that a new edition was published the next year ; but it never 
received very general favor. 

How far Coverdale was from the arrogance and envy of narrow 
minds, is seen in the fact that he entered most cordially into Crum- 
well’s plan, in 1538, of republishing Tyndale’s version at Paris, and 
making it the authorized Bible of the kingdom, to be employed in the 
public service of religion to the exclusion of every other. He himself 
went to Paris as reviser and corrector of the press ; and had well 
nigh lost his life in the service through the opposition of the French 
Inquisitors. The work was completed in England under his super- 


* Bagster’s edition of Coverdale’s Bible, Memoir, p. 13. 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. • l8l 

vision, and was known as the Great Bible, “ appointed to be read 
in churches.” / 

In 1551, under King Edward, Coverdale was made Bishop of 
Exeter. During Mary’s reign he was obliged to seek refuge on the 
continent ; but on the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England, 
where he was joyfully received by the friends of the Reformation. He 
would now have regained his honors but for his conscientious scruples 
in regard to certain church ceremonies, strenuously insisted on by the 
ruling powers, but which, in his view, countenanced dangerous popish 
errors. This subject will be more particularly noticed hereafter. 

Even the rectory which had been given to Coverdale as a provision 
for his old age, was at length taken from him for his steadfast refusal 
to obey the Act of Uniformity. He continued to preach, however, 
and the name of Father Coverdale was dear to the common people as 
that of a faithful, honest and affectionate teacher of the way of salva¬ 
tion. He died in honorable poverty May 26th, 1567, , in the 81st 
year of his age. “ He was buried in the Church of St. Bartholomew, 
behind the Royal Exchange ; and his funeral was attended by multi¬ 
tudes who reverenced his memory and bewailed his loss.” 

His writings have been collected and published by the Parker So¬ 
ciety, and form an interesting monument of his own learning and piety, 
and of the spirit of the age in which he lived. 

Taverner s Bible. 

Among the young men of Oxford who in 1526 were immured in 
Cardinal College cellar for reading Tyndale’s New Testament, was 
one by the name of Richard Taverner. He was especially implicated, 
as having been engaged in the attempt to conceal the obnoxious books 
under the floor of a fellow-student’s room. On account, however, of 
his skill in music, he was soon released by Wolsey, who was a lover 
of all elegant accomplishments, and probably thought it a pity to spoil 
so fine a voice by the damp air of the cellar. He then devoted him¬ 
self to the study of law ; and was admitted to practice at the Inner 
Temple. 

Though not distinguished during the times of severe persecution 
which followed, Taverner seems to have remained a faithful adherent 
of the truth, and particularly of the cause of Bible translation. In 
1534 he became attached to the court, under the patronage of Crum- 
well, and by him was raised to an office of some responsibility and 
honor. It was while he was still occupying this post that his patron, 
acting on his now ruling idea that the only security against the revival 


182 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


and triumph of the Popish party in England was to flood the country 
with Bibles, urged Taverner, who was an expert Greek scholar, to 
undertake a revision of Matthew’s Bible, of which he was so desirous 
to publish anew edition. The result was the work known as Tav¬ 
erner’s Bible ; which was, according to Bishop Bale, “ neither a 
bare revisal, nor yet strictly a new version, but something between 
both.” His dedication to the King, in which he explains his reasons 
for undertaking the work, is an interesting indication of the spirit of 
the time in regard to Bible translation : 

Your Grace never did anything more acceptable unto God, more profitable 
unto the advancement of true Christianity, more displeasant to the enemies of 
the same, and also to your Grace’s enemies, than when your Majesty licensed 
and willed the most sacred Bible, containing the unspotted and lively word of 
God, to be in the English tongue set forth to his Highness’ subjects. It cannot 
be denied, however to the setting forth of it some men have neither undiligently 
nor yet unlearnedly travailed, that some faults have escaped their hands. But it 
is a work of so great difficulty so absolutely to translate the whole Bible that it 
be faultless, I fear it would scarce be done of one or two persons, but rather re¬ 
quired both a deeper conferring of many learned wits together, and also a juster 
time and longer leisure ; but forasmuch as the printers hereof were very desirous 
to have the Bible come forth as faultless and emendently as the shortness of time 
for the recognizing of the same would require, they desired me, for default of a 
better learned, diligently to overlook and peruse the whole copy ; and in case I 
should find any notable default that needed correction, to amend the same ac¬ 
cording to the true exemplars, which thi ng according to my talent, I have gladly 
doffie.” 

The work was published with King Henry’s license, in whose reign 
it passed through several editions. It continued to be printed occa¬ 
sionally as late as 1551, after which there seems to have been no far¬ 
ther demand for it, and it disappears from the list of versions printed 
for use among the people. 

Cranmer s Bible; The Anglican Church. 

The name of Cranmer has already been frequently mentioned in 
connection with the early history of Bible translation in England. 
He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, and was one of those 
young men selected by Wolsey for their superior talents and scholar¬ 
ship, to adorn his new college at Oxford. But at the risk of seriously 
offending the great Cardinal, Cranmer declined the honor and the in¬ 
creased emolument, preferring the greater quiet and independence of 
his Cambridge home. He afterward became Divinity Lecturer in 
Magdalen College, and was there held in the highest esteem for his 
learning and virtue. 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. 


183 


While yet a student, Cranmer, like so many other educated young 
men of that period, was led by his own spiritual wants to an earnest 
study of the Scriptures ; and from that time the written word of God 
was the object of his profoundest veneration. Being appointed by 
his college one of the Examiners of candidates for degrees as Bachelors 
and Doctors of Divinity, he was accustomed to make their knowledge 
of the Scriptures a test of admission ; and if this was found unsatis¬ 
factory, to turn them back, with the advice to spend some years longer 
in becoming acquainted with the book “ wherein the knowledge of 
God and the grounds of divinity lay.” The Friars were particularly 
deficient in this respect, their sole training being in the subtleties of 
the schoolmen ; and Cranmer’s strictness subjected him to their mor¬ 
tal enmity. “ Yet some of the more ingenuous,” says Strype,* 
” afterward rendered great and public thanks for refusing them ; 
whereby, being put upon a study of God’s word, they attained to 
more sound knowledge in religion.” 

From his elevation to the Primacy, in 1533, his influence was 
steadily directed toward the object of securing to the nation at large 
the free use of the Bible in English. His earnest but unsuccessful 
efforts to enlist the bishops in the work have already been noticed ; 
as well as the generous ardor with which he welcomed Tyndale’s Bible 
in 1537, and his exultation when permission was at length obtained 
from the capricious Henry that all his subjects, high and low, rich 
and poor, might read the word of God. 

In 1538, the first reprint of Tyndale’s whole Biblef was commenced 
in Paris and finished in London, under the oversight of Coverdale. 
In 1540, another was published under the immediate superintendence 
of Cranmer, which, on account of the critical comparison of the 
translation with the Greek and Hebrew text which it exhibits, takes 
rank as an important contribution to the work of Bible translation. 
This is the work known as Cranmer’s Bible. In the Old Testa¬ 
ment, particularly, the rendering is often an improvement on that of 
Tyndale ; though elsewhere it shows the influence of unreliable 
guides in Hebrew philology. Whether the changes were from Cran¬ 
mer himself, or from scholars employed by him, is not known ; but 
his learning justifies the supposition that they came from his own 
hand. Its great blemish is the frequent introduction of readings 
from the Vulgate ; though these are distinguished by being inclosed 
in brackets, and printed in a different type. The version of the 
Psalms given in Cranmer’s Bible is the one still retained, with slight 


* Life of Cranmer. 


f See pp. 168, 169. 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


184 

variations, in the Book of Common Prayer in the Church of England. 
The Church Psalter does not, however, distinguish the additions from 
the Vulgate ; in the fourteenth Psalm, for example, three whole 
verses are there inserted, with no indication that they do not belong 
to the Hebrew text. 

The prologue to this Bible, written by Cranmer himself, is a most 
earnest appeal to the laity of all classes to improve their present op¬ 
portunities of becoming acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, as the 
great remedy for all the evils of human life. Even among them were 
still to be found many who retained the prejudices in which they had 
been trained against the use of the Bible by the laity, and who re¬ 
fused to read or hear the Scripture in the vulgar tongue. 

“ I would marvel much,” he writes, “ that any man should be so mad as to 
refuse, in darkness, light ; in hunger, food ; in cold, fire ; . . . save that I con¬ 
sider how much custom and usage may do. So that if there were a people, as 
some write, de cymeriis , which never saw the sun, by reason that they be situated 
far toward the north pole, and be inclosed and overshadowed with high moun¬ 
tains ; it is credible and like enough, that if, by the power and will of God, the 
mountains should sink down and give place so that the sun might have entrance 
to them, at first some of them would be offended therewith. And the old prov¬ 
erb aflirmeth that after tillage of corn was first found, many delighted more to 
feed of mast and acorns, wherewith they had been accustomed, than to eat bread 
made of good corn.” 

After quoting at large from St. Chrysostom to prove that the laity, 
as those who are most exposed to the trials and temptations of life, 
being “ in the midst of the sea of worldly wickedness, standing in the 
forefront of the host, and nighest to the enemy,” need the means of 
defence and succor ready at hand, far more than those who lead a life 
of retirement and spiritual meditation, he proceeds : 

“ Now if I should in like manner bring forth what the self-same doctor speak- 
eth in other places, and what other doctors and writers say concerning the same 
purpose, I might seem to you to write another Bible, rather than make a Preface 
to the Bible. Wherefore, in few words to comprehend the largeness and utility 
of the Scriptures, how it containeth fruitful instruction and erudition for every 
man ; if anything be necessary to be learned, of the holy Scriptures we may learn 
it ; if falsehood shall be reproved, thereof we may gather wherewithal ; if any¬ 
thing to be corrected and amended, if there need any exhortation or consolation, 
of the Scriptures we may well learn it In the Scriptures be the fat pastures of 
the soul—therein is no venomous meat, no unwholesome thing ; they be the very 
dainty and pure feeding. . . . Here all manner of persons—men and women, 

young, old, learned, unlearned, rich, poor, priests, laymen, lords, ladies, officers, 
tenants, and mean men ; virgins, wives, widows, lawyers, merchants, artificers, 
husbandmen, and all manner of persons, of what estate or condition soever they 
be may in this book learn all things what they ought to believe, what they ought 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. 185 

to do, and what they should not do, as well concerning Almighty God, as also 
concerning themselves, and all other.” 

These were wonderful words to be heard, in that day, from the 
highest dignitary of the English Church. The minute specification of 
various classes and conditions is not without important meaning ; 
and recognizes a principle far in advance of the opinions then gener¬ 
ally current among the great. The good Archbishop seems resolved 
that no individual shall feel himself excluded or excused from the 
new-spread feast for lack of a special invitation. This is Cranmer’s 
true glory, his fervent love for the inspired word, and his unwearied 
efforts to make the divine gift common alike to all. Here he showed 
himself the true Christian, the true Protestant. 

It is, moreover, greatly to his honor that his anxiety to strengthen 
the newly established order of things was allowed to affect so little 
his renderings of Scripture. A few ecclesiastical terms, which unfor¬ 
tunately Tyndale had perpetuated, in contrariety to his general prin¬ 
ciples of translation, were likewise retained by Cranmer. Put the 
word “ church” occurs only once in his version, and then merely as 
the designation of a sacred building, (Acts xix., 37), for which also he 
had the authority of Tyndale and Coverdale. In all other cases, he 
uniformly renders ecclesia by the noble and intelligible word “ congre¬ 
gation.” 

The year 1542 furnished an index, of a novel character, to the un¬ 
wearied efforts of the popish prelates to frustrate his efforts in behalf 
of the Bible ; namely, an order from the King for a revision, by the 
bishops , of the authorized translation of the New Testament. When 
the people were destitute of a Bible, Cranmer had vainly tried to en¬ 
list them in the work of preparing one ; now, when the work had been 
carried through, against their most strenuous efforts, they were ready 
to step in and do what they could to mar it. Sorely against his will, 
the Archbishop was obliged to apportion the task among them ; and 
then followed meeting after meeting to decide on the plan of execu¬ 
tion. At the sixth meeting, Gardiner—who, no doubt, was the con¬ 
triver of the scheme—brought in a list of above one hundred Latin 
words,* ” which for their genuine and native meaning, and for the 
majesty of the matter in them contained,” he desired might be re¬ 
tained untranslated, or Englished with the least possible alteration, in 
the new revision. This design, if effected, would have given the peo¬ 
ple a Bible in name, while it deprived them of much of its # substance. 
“ Wanting,” says Fuller, “ the power to keep the light of the Word 


* Quoted at length in Fuller’s Church History, vol. ii., p. 108. 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


186 

from shining, he sought, out of policy, to put it in a dark lantern.” 
Thus too, according to the old historian, he sought “ to teach the 
laity their distance ; who, though admitted into the outer court of 
common matter, were yet debarred entrance into the holy of holies of 
these mysterious expressions, reserved only for the understanding of 
the high priest to pierce into them. Moreover, this made Gardiner 
not only tender, but fond to have these words continued in kind with¬ 
out translation, because the profit of the Romish Church was deeply 
in some of them concerned. Witness the word ‘ penance, ’ which, ac¬ 
cording to the vulgar sound, contrary to the original sense thereof, 
was a magazine of will-worship, and brought in much gain to the 
priests, who were desirous to keep that word, because that word kept 
them.” Cranmer, having obtained this evidence of the purpose they 
had in view, made Henry fully acquainted with it ; and as the result, 
was empowered to inform the Convocation, that “ it was the King’s 
will and pleasure” that the examination of the entire translation of 
the Old and New Testaments should be committed to the Universi¬ 
ties. Thus the work was rescued from the hands of its enemies , but 
it does not appear that the Universities were ever troubled with it. 

And yet, with all this zeal for faithful vernacular translations, 
Cranmer only half understood the principles of Protestantism. With 
one hand he dispersed Bibles, without stint or restriction, among the 
people ; with the other he laid yokes on their necks, hardly more 
tolerable than that which their fathers wore, for it equally denied the 
supremacy of the individual conscience. The Romish bishops had 
punished dissent from their Church ; and this was accounted wrong, 
because it was the Church of antichrist. Protestant bishops punished 
dissent from their Church ; and this was right, because it was the true 
Church of Christ ! It is amusing, though humiliating, to read the 
records furnished by the admiring Strype, of the contests between 
Cranmer and the stout Bishop of Winchester, during the reign of 
Edward VI. Gardiner had been a sad thorn to the pious Primate in 
the previous reign ; but now the latter had it all his own way, and 
he resolved to reduce the turbulent prelate to conformity with the 
true faith. When he could not be convinced by argument, he was 
sent to the Fleet. Being “ somewhat straightly handled,” he com¬ 
plained to the Lord Protector that he was allowed no friend or ser¬ 
vant, no chaplain, barber, tailor nor physician ; “ a sign,” says the 
sagacious biographer, “ that he gave them high provocation.” This 
was in 1547. 

After a three years’ imprisonment “ it was now thought time,” as 
is quietly remarked, “ that he be spoken withal.” Accordingly, he 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. 


187 

was brought up before the King’s council, and articles of submission 
proposed for his subscription, condemning all the essential doctrines 
and practices of Romanism, and approving whatever had been done 
during the previous and present reigns for their suppression. We 
cannot but respect the man who, with liberty and honor on one side,* 
and disgrace and prison on the other, could maintain with such stead¬ 
fast spirit his right to what he believed the truth. ” After a great 
deal of pains and patience,” on the part of the Archbishop and his 
fellow-commissioners, maintained unavailingly through two and 
twenty sessions, the refractory bishop was condemned to a still stricter 
confinement, in a meaner prison, denied all intercourse with his 
friends, and the use of books, pen, ink, and paper; ‘‘that he may 
not write his detestable purposes, but be sequestered from all confer¬ 
ences, and from all means that may serve him to practice in any 
way.” From this imprisonment he was not released till the accession 
of Mary ; and though we must detest the fiendish cruelty of his spirit, 
we cannot much wonder that when his turn came to be in power, “ he 
sufficiently wracked his revenge against the good Archbishop, and the 
true religion.” 

Nor was such severity confined to Papists. The pious and zealous 
Hooper, Bishop elect of Gloucester, fully agreed with Cranmer as to 
doctrine and discipline ; only it went against his conscience to wear 
the vestments identified with the superstitious and idolatrous rites of 
Popery. Arguments proved equally fruitless with him as with Gardi¬ 
ner ; and on the report of the Archbishop, ” that Hooper could not 
be brought to any conformity, but rather persevered in his obstinacy, 
coveted to prescribe orders and necessary laws to his head,” the uni¬ 
versal panacea was administered by committing him to the Fleet. We 
wish it could be recorded that conscience proved as unyielding in this 
instance as in the other. But after a time spent in prison, Hooper 
learned to appreciate the arguments of his brethren, and exchanged 
his uncomfortable lodgings in the Fleet for the bishopric and its vest¬ 
ments. 

But there were other cases which more nearly touch our sympa¬ 
thies, because infringing, under the sacred name of the Bible, on the 
religious liberties of the common people. We are told that “ now 
that the liberty of the Gospel began to be allowed, (!) divers false and 
unsound opinions began to be vented with it.” The Archbishop felt 
it incumbent on him to put a stop to these disorders, by convening 

* Nothing but this hypocritical subscription was required as the condition of 
full restoration to his bishopric and a place in the King’s council. 


188 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


several “ heretics” before him, and compelling them to take a public 
oath of recantation, with such farther penance as seemed to him ad¬ 
visable. One man, for maintaining that the regenerate could not sin, 
and other notions of like character, was required—besides signing an 
abjuration, and a promise “ never to hold, teach, or believe the said 
errors or damned opinions above rehearsed—to procure two sureties 
in five hundred pounds (equal at least to twenty thousand dollars) for 
his attendance the Sunday following at Paul’s Cross, and there to 
stand penitently before the preacher, all the time of sermon, with a 
faggot on his shoulder.” Michael Thombe, a butcher, was comment¬ 
ed, for holding “ that Christ took not the flesh of the Virgin, and that 
the baptism of infants is not profitable because it goeth before faith ; 
but, “ by submission and penance, he escaped !” 

There was another class of offenders, as described by Strype— 
“ some that took the liberty of meeting together in certain places, 
and there to propound odd questions, and vent dangerous doctrines 
and opinions.” As a specimen of these disorderly proceedings, it is 
mentioned that “ a number of persons, a sort of Anabaptists, about 
sixty, met in a house on a Sunday, in the parish of Booking, in 
Essex ; where arose among them a great dispute, ‘ Whether it were 
necessary to stand or kneel, barehead or covered, at prayers ? ’ and 
they concluded the ceremony not to be material ; but that the heart 
before God was required, and nothing else. Such other like warm 
disputes there were about Scripture.” Similar assemblies were like¬ 
wise held in Kent. “ These,” says Strype, “ were looked on as dan¬ 
gerous to Church and State.” Nine of these from Booking, “ being 
cowherds, clothiers, and such like mean people,” and others from 
Kent, having been arrested and brought before the council, confessed 
the cause of their assembly to be ” for to talk of the Scriptures.” 
They also admitted that they had refused the communion for two 
years. Their grounds for so doing being judged erroneous and super¬ 
stitious, “ five of them were committed to prison, and seven bound in 
recognizance to the King in forty pounds each man.” 

But “ the mild Archbishop,” as he is called par excellence , could 
not always satisfy his conscience with fines and prisons. An ignorant 
young woman, named Joan Bocher, who held the heresy that Christ, 
being sinless, could not have partaken of the flesh of the Virgin, who 
was conceived in sin, withstood all the efforts put forth for her con¬ 
version. The Archbishop, as well as Ridley and Latimer, labored 
long and earnestly for this object ; but at length gave over the at¬ 
tempt, and she was condemned to the flames. When the sentence 
was brought by Cranmer to the young King for signature, he long 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. 


189 


refused ; and when at last he yielded, weeping, to the authority and 
arguments of his venerated instructor in religion, it was with the 
solemn declaration, “ If there is wrong in this matter it rests wholly 
on your hands !” In the year 1551, a Dutchman suffered the same 
death by Cranmer’s authority, for denying the divinity of Christ. 

Such were the measures to which good men were driven for the sup¬ 
port of that State church which has been glorified as the embodiment 
of the English Reformation. But these measures never grew out of 
that inward divine life which the Spirit of God, through God’s own 
word, had awakened among the people of England. They were, in¬ 
deed, the legitimate fruits of the ecclesiastical system which royal des¬ 
potism had forced upon that noble work ; or, in Milton’s splendid 
language, “ the verminous and polluted rags, dropt over-worn from 
the toiling shoulders of Time, deformedly quilted and interlaced with 
the entire, the spotless, and undecaying robe of truth.” The perse¬ 
cuting spirit which so sadly defaces the history of English Protestant¬ 
ism, is due not to Christianity, nor even, primarily, to the men who 
have been the instruments of oppression. It belonged to the system 
which constituted the civil ruler the controller, ex officio, of man’s 
relations to God. When nonconformity to a certain Church is made 
an offence against the constitution of the State, it must, of necessity, 
be punished by the civil sword. Nor can any change of organization, 
nor of men, nor of times, effect any real alteration in the working of 
this system. Catholic Spain, Protestant England, Calvinistic Geneva, 
Puritan New England, Lutheran Germany, all bear witness to this 
assertion. The stake and the gibbet may, indeed, be banished by the 
advancing light of Christian civilization ; but other forms of oppres¬ 
sion, suited to the mildness and proprieties of the age, will continue 
to attest that a State religion, in its very nature, is a denial of the 
supremacy of conscience, and as such, is and must be an Inquisition 
and a despotism. 

Cranmer, in his efforts to consolidate the Anglican Church, was 
actuated, no doubt, by pious and patriotic motives. To concentrate 
ecclesiastical power in the hands of the King of England was his ex¬ 
pedient to secure it from reverting to the Pope of Rome ; as to make 
the doctrines of Protestantism the State religion of England, was for¬ 
ever to exclude the teachers of Popery, who were also the sworn 
enemies of the Bible for the people. To make sure of this end, and 
that no loophole of access might be left to the abettors of Romanism, 
required that the lines of orthodoxy should be sharply defined ; and 
especially, that no inward disagreement should cause a weak and 
broken front to be presented to the enemy. Hence conformity be- 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


I90 

came his one idea ; carried even to the extreme requiring unity in out¬ 
ward forms and ceremonies, and in the cut and color of garments, no 
less than in the belief of the essential truths of Christianity. 

But whatever may be its faults, the Church which recognizes the 
people’s right to the unrestricted use of the Bible in their mother 
tongue, differs from one which denies this, as light from darkness. 
If it promulgates error, it also administers the antidote ; if it claims a 
tyranny over conscience, it deprives no man of the charter wherein he 
may read his inalienable title to judge for himself how he shall wor¬ 
ship God. Accordingly, we find that notwithstanding the indefatiga¬ 
ble endeavors of Archbishop Cranmer and his successors to enforce 
“uniformity and quietness in religion,” the spirit of independent 
thought increased among the people, and Puritanism grew rife in the 
very bosom of the Church. 

While, therefore, we must regret the mistaken policy of Cranmer, 
which did so much to entail on England the burden under which she 
has groaned three hundred years, which has cost so much of her best 
blood, and exiled or disfranchised so many of her most loyal chil¬ 
dren ; we must still remember him with gratitude as one of the earli¬ 
est advocates of vernacular translation, and especially as that one who 
first obtained from the civil power the admission of the Bible into the 
public service of religion, and liberty for all, without respect to class 
or condition, to read it for themselves. This was the vital point. 
This granted, and the enjoyment of that religious liberty and equality 
which the Bible teaches, was but a question of time and patience. 

The reign of Edward VI., during which Cranmer wielded almost 
unbounded ecclesiastical power, is a period illustrious in the annals of 
the Bible. With all the Primate’s fondness for legislating in matters 
of religion, he wisely left the word of God to take care of itself, ex¬ 
cept so far as to give his warmest encouragement to all efforts for mul¬ 
tiplying and diffusing it. The fifty editions of Bibles and New Testa¬ 
ments which appeared during this brief reign, in answer to the 
spontaneous popular demand, are a greater glory to Cranmer than if 
they had all been issued in obedience to his authority. 

In another respect also we see his true liberality in reference to the 
Scriptures. Four versions, and these in editions varying more or less 
among themselves, were before the public, and one of these was his 
own. Yet there is no trace that his vast influence as Primate was 
used to gain for the latter any preference in the public favor. Dur¬ 
ing these six and a half years there were published, as nearly as can 
be ascertained, of Coverdale’s Bible, two of the whole Bible and two 
of the New Testament ; of Taverner’s two ; of Cranmer’s, seven of 


THREE LATER VERSIONS. 


I 9 I 

the whole Bible and eight of the New Testament ; of Tyndale’s five 
of the whole Bible (in eight distinct issues, commonly reckoned as 
separate editions) and of the New Testament twenty-four. Besides 
these, were two or three editions of the latter published with Eras¬ 
mus’ Latin New Testament in parallel columns. It is interesting to 
see from this comparison that Tyndale’s New Testament was still the 
favorite of the common mind ; while the change in the character of 
the ruling influences is marked by the fact that the long-proscribed 
name of the translator appeared in full on the title page of at least 
fifteen editions. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

Again the scene was changed. A stern adherent of the Church of 
Rome now sat on the throne of England, in place of the gentle and 
pious Edward. 

It is not strange that the long series of disappointments, mortifica¬ 
tions, and sorrows, which had consumed the youth and early woman¬ 
hood of Mary, should have tinged her spirit with bitterness and 
gloom. A sadder fate few have experienced. Commencing life with 
the most brilliant prospects, accustomed almost in infancy to the 
pomp and adulation of an expectant queen, sought in marriage by the 
greatest princes of Europe ; before the age of twenty-five she saw the 
marriage of which she was born declared incestuous, her illustrious 
mother ignominiously supplanted, and herself studiously degraded by 
her own father. In poverty and neglect, often in jeopardy of her life 
from her father s jealousy of one he had so deeply injured, she wore 
away ten weary years. With the sense of personal wrong was min¬ 
gled indignation and horror at the sacrilegious repudiation of the 
ancient faith, so intimately connected with it. It required great 
strength and elasticity of nature, s»ch as Elizabeth possessed, or 
great Christian magnanimity, to come unharmed out of such a trial. 
Mary had neither. Narrow in mind, melancholic in temper, the 
devotee of a faith which nurtures the darker passions, the fearful 
tempest of life had but withered and chilled her ; and she came to the 
throne yet young, only thirty-six, a blighted woman, a bigoted and 
morose zealot. The memory of the humiliations and terrors to which 
she had been subjected, but fed the fierce flame of religious fanati¬ 
cism, and her power as Queen was valued only as the instrument to 
avenge herself and her religion. 

Mary entered London on the 3d of August, 1553. Her first act 
was to release and reinstate “ her bishops,” as she emphatically styled 
Gardiner, Bonner, and Tunstal, who emerged from their six years’ 
incarceration, unsubdued in spirit, and thirsting for revenge. The 
former, who possessed in an eminent degree the pride, the talent, and 
the craft which characterize the higher class of the Romish priest¬ 
hood, was made Lord Chancellor ; Bonner, a ferocious bully, not 



THE REIGN OF TERROR. 


*93 


above playing the hypocrite when occasion offered, and insatiable in 
his thirst for blood, became one of Mary’s most influential counsellors, 
and her chief inquisitor. But few days were suffered to elapse after 
Edward’s funeral, when the Queen re-inaugurated the reign of 
Obscurantism, that twin sister of Popery, by an “ Inhibition” against 
reading or teaching any Scriptures in the churches, and printing any 
books. By the 15th of September, Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, 
Hooper, Bradford, and other distinguished reformers, were shut up in 
the Tower, while John Rogers was made prisoner in his own house, 
and forbidden to speak to any person out of his own family. In the 
Parliament which met in October, Cranmer was attainted of high 
treason ; and a bill was passed re-affirming Henry’s marriage with 
Katherine, the preamble to which recognized the late Archbishop as 
the sole instigator of the divorce. Had this been true, it would be 
hard to blame Mary for singling him out as. a special object of resent¬ 
ment. But both Bonner and Gardiner had been zealous agents in 
the divorce, long before Cranmer became an actor in it, and the 
latter was a member with Cranmer of the commission which 
pronounced the marriage with Katherine unlawful. Both of them 
had also, with all show of cordiality, acknowledged the King’s suprem¬ 
acy. Nay, Mary herself had conceded both points, for the sake of 
regaining position and influence at court. Her servile letter to her 
father on the death of Anne Boleyn, and the yet more servile articles 
which she consented to subscribe, abjuring her religion and with her 
own hand endorsing the foul stigma which had been cast upon her 
birth,* should have forever prevented her from making the like acts 
grounds of accusation against others. But all this shows that her 
conduct was governed not so much by personal or political, as by 
religious motives. Gardiner was a true Papist, and this covered all 
his offences ; Cranmer was a zealous Protestant, and this was a crime 
which cancelled all obligations. For it was Cranmer’s intercession 
which had saved her from the Tower, and from a bloody death at her 
father’s hands ; and he had incurred the hatred of the powerful 
Northumberland by his earnest opposition, only relinquished upon 
Edward’s dying entreaties, to the exclusion of Mary from the succes¬ 
sion. 

Nor did any execution take place on the charge of treason. A 
year and a half were the accused reserved in prison, till Cardinal 
Pole had effected a formal reconciliation between the apostate king¬ 
dom and Holy Mother Church, by which the Pope resumed all his 


Burnet, vol. i., p. 154. 


194 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


ancient dominion over England, and the doctrines of Rome became 
once more the established faith. A stillness, presaging the bursting 
of the storm, held the nation for a time in suspense and fear. 

Meanwhile, all foreigners attached to the reformed principles, great 
numbers of whom had, during the reign of Edward, fled from perse¬ 
cution in their own countries into England, were warned to depart 
without delay. In their train, disguised as servants, and by other 
opportunities, a large body of English Protestants contrived to elude 
the vigilance of government, and escaped to the continent. Not 
fewer than eight hundred or a thousand learned men, besides great 
numbers in other conditions, are estimated to have become exiles 
during this short reign. 

At length, on the 2ist of November, 1554, Cardinal Pole arrived in 
England as Papal Legate, and was received with all the pomp and 
reverence due to the ambassador plenipotentiary of his Holiness. 
On the 30th of the same month, he performed the ceremony of 
reconciling Parliament, as the highest civil assembly of the realm ; 
on the 6th of December the same was done in the Convocation, the 
highest assembly of the clergy. This was followed by commissions, 
issued by the Cardinal to Winchester and other bishops, for trying 
heretics. It was then that the pent up flames of persecution burst 
forth with unexampled fury. The alacrity of the commissioned pre¬ 
lates to discharge their bloody office shows with what impatience they 
had waited for the appointed hour. First, the most eminent of the 
reformers, those who were regarded as leaders of the host, were con¬ 
demned and executed ; then attention was turned to humbler victims. 
The whole country was placed under the most odious system of espion- 
a g e - Justices of the Peace in the several counties were formed into 
secret vigilance committees, who were directed to lay out their shires 
into districts, and to employ spies in every parish ; and they were to 
meet monthly to receive the information thus gathered, to examine 
such as were accused, and make report to head-quarters. By these 
thorough measures it was intended utterly to root out and extirpate 
heresy from the land. The Queen, especially after her marriage with 
that cold-hearted bigot Philip II., urged on these proceedings against 
her innocent subjects with unrelenting fury. Even the hope of becom¬ 
ing a mother but added fierceness to her cruelty ; and she declared 
that unless her mind were quieted by the death of every heretic then 
in the prisons, “ even to the last one," she could not hope to pass 
the approaching crisis with safety.* Bonner himself was then too slow 
for her impatience. 

* Strype’s Cranmer, vol. i., p. 528. 


THE REIGN OF TERROR. 


J 95 


It was a terrific period, and, as in all similar trials, “ the love of 
many waxed cold,” and multitudes sought to make the impossible 
compromise between outward assent to what they disbelieved, and 
inward allegiance to the truth. But there were also many who chose 
death rather than deny Christ ; and their example did far more to 
undermine Popery in the hearts of the people, than Cranmer’s Church 
had ever accomplished with its carefully elaborated Articles, and its 
gentle persuasives of fines and the Fleet. The faith of these stead¬ 
fast martyrs was an argument which came not in word alone, but in 
power. It told of an inward life which could overmaster fear and 
pain, which in the midst of bodily torture could impart a divine joy 
such as earthly prosperity could never give, and even in the dying 
agony could inspire a prayer of forgiveness and love for the perse¬ 
cutor. 

From February, 1555, to November, 1558, a period of less than 
'four years, there perished in prison by torture, and at the stake, 
nearly four hundred persons, a large number of whom were in the 
flower of youth. Of these, two hundred and eighty-eight perished at 
the stake, many of them under circumstances of peculiar cruelty. As 
if the spectacle of a single human being shriveling in the flames could 
not satisfy the cannibal fury of their persecutors, it became the cus¬ 
tom to burn them in companies of from three to ten or more. At 
Colchester five men and five women were burned in one day, six in 
the morning, and four in the afternoon. At Lewis, .in Kent, six men 
and four women perished together. At Bow, near London, was wit¬ 
nessed, June 27th, 1556, the horrible spectacle of thirteen human 
beings, eleven men and two women, consumed in one fire. They 
suffered, not even charged with any offence against morality or the 
civil law ; but simply because they could not conform their con¬ 
sciences to the doctrines and observances of the Queen’s religion. 

Such a time was needed, also, to show what the word of God had 
already done for England. After the first paralyzing shock of terror, 
the work which had been progressing for thirty years, manifested 
itself with increasing power ; till at length the demonstrations of pop¬ 
ular feeling, though free from every trace of violence or disorder, 
alarmed the government into comparative moderation. On the occa¬ 
sion last mentioned, twenty thousand persons were estimated to have 
been present, “ whose ends generally in coming there, and to such 
like executions,” says Strype, “ were to strengthen themselves in the 
profession of the Gospel, and to exhort and comfort those who were 
to die.” A single bystander having uttered, in the fullness of his 
heart, a brief ejaculation in behalf of the sufferers, a responsive Amen 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


I96 

burst from the assembled multitude with the sound of thunder.* 
But the infatuated Queen needed many such lessons before she 
learned to respect the awful voice of popular conviction. 

The persecutions of the year 1558 again brought out to the light 
those secret societies of believers, or Congregations, as they called 
themselves, which have been already mentioned as the successors of 
the Lollards. Several of these now existed in London ; and from 
the number of localities specified where they were accustomed to 
assemble, it appears that they had increased rather than dimin¬ 
ished. Whether they had been known during the administration 
of Cranmer is uncertain ; but as they seem to have preserved their 
separate organization, differing in important respects from the State 
Church, it is most probable that they had continued to assemble dur¬ 
ing that period with their wonted silence and secrecy. So far as we 
can judge, they were simply companies (or, as we should now call 
them, Churches) of believers, who met statedly for the worship of“ 
God and for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, and had no 
officers but a Pastor and Deacons chosen by themselves. The con¬ 
gregation which assembled in Bow Lane, is known to have existed 
without interruption twenty-five years, and was probably the parent 
of all the rest. They had not intermitted their meetings during 
Mary’s bloody reign, and had enjoyed through this period the labors 
of a succession of godly and able pastors. These had been com¬ 
pelled, one after another, to take refuge in flight ; but the members, 
as a body, had thus far escaped detection. 

A tone of piety, beautifully primitive and Scriptural, characterized 
these quiet, humble companies of Christians. They seem never to 
have been disturbed by those hair-splitting disputes over free-will and 
predestination, in which the metaphysical tendencies of some of the 
leading reformers had embroiled Protestantism ; and which, in the 
earlier days of the Marian persecution, had made even the prisons of 
the faithful re-echo with the brawls of fiery controversy, and com¬ 
pelled the jailers to secure a decent peace, by separating brother from 
brother, f Those disciples seem, pre-eminently, to have “ kept the 
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” Holding fast those 
grand truths of revelation which pertain to the soul’s salvation, it was 
their simple aim to incorporate them as living energies in their hearts, 
and to manifest that inward power by lives of holiness and love. 
Such had been their character from their first beginnings in the days 
of Wickliffe. 

* Anderson, vol. ii., p. 264. 

| Strype’s Cranmer, Book iii., ch. xiv. 


THE REIGN OF TERROR. 


197 


Bonner’s suspicous eye had been for some time directed to the 
gatherings of these inoffensive people ; and his spies, under the guise 
of brethren, had been busily engaged in seeking information to be 
used against them At length, one Sabbath morning—December 12, 
r 558—as they were about assembling for divine worship at Islington, 
their pastor, Mr. John Rough, and one of their deacons, Cuthbert 
Symson, a rich and worthy citizen of London, were there appre¬ 
hended by the Captain of the Queen’s Guard, and taken immediately 
before the Privy Council. Three days after they were handed over 
to the tender mercies of Bonner. During his trial before this brutal 
prelate, Mr. Rough alluded to a visit which he had once made to 
Rome, and the abominations he had there witnessed. This so infuri¬ 
ated Bonner that he flew upon him like a wild beast, and. actually tore 
out a part of his beard by the roots ! Two days before he suffered, 
he addressed the bereaved flock of which he had been so faithful a 
shepherd, in a letter which breathed the spirit of the apostolic age. 
Like those of Tyndale and Frith, this beautiful epistle tells us, in 
every sentence, that the Bible was the fountain from which his life 
drew its springs. 

Mr. Symson was reserved three months longer in prison, the object 
being to force from him the names of his fellow-disciples, of which he 
had the list. Three times in one day was he subjected to torture ; 
but no agonies could tempt him to betray his brethren. Bonner him¬ 
self confessed before the Consistory that he was baffled, and that 
there was something in this man’s spirit which he could not under¬ 
stand. “Ye see this man,” said he, “ what a personable man he is. 
And furthermore, concerning his patience, I say unto you that if he 
were not a heretic, he is a man of the greatest patience that ever yet 
came before me ; for I tell you he hath been thrice racked in one day 
in the Tower. Also in my house he hath felt some sorrow ; and yet 
I never saw his patience broken.” On the 28th of March this heroic 
man was burnt at Smithfield, in company with two of his brethren. 

The place of their pastor was immediately supplied by the not less 
holy and intrepid Thomas 'Bentham. There was need of such a 
leader, for the persecution now grew hot. Less than a month after 
the death of Cuthbert Symson, about forty of their number, men and 
women, had assembled for worship near Islington. With their Bibles 
in their hands, they were “ occupied in the meditation of God’s holy 
word,” when they were surprised by a constable and his posse, wha 
succeeded in arresting twenty-two of them. They were immediately 
imprisoned at Newgate, and there lay seven weeks without being once 
called up for examination. Two died in prison ; of the remaining 


198 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


twenty, thirteen were condemned on the 24th of June—a month 
memorable in the history of English martyrdom—to perish at the 
stake. The rest barely escaped with life. 

Seven of the condemned were to be burned at Smithfield. Fearful 
of the demonstrations which had been witnessed on former occasions 
of this character, Philip and Mary took the precaution of issuing a 
proclamation, to be read first at Newgate and afterward at the stake, 
charging and commanding, that “ no man should either pray for, or 
speak to the condemned, or once say, ‘ God help them !’ ” But it 
needed something more than royal proclamations to repress the mighty 
emotion now swelling in the great popular heart. At the appointed 
hour a vast multitude stood awaiting the arrival of the martyrs at 
Smithfield. Swaying forward at their approach, with a quiet but irre¬ 
sistible movement, they surrounded the prisoners, while the billmen 
and officers were borne off like chaff on the wave, so that they could 
not even come near their charge. Then was disclosed the cause of 
this strange proceeding. In the bosom of that dense crowd were hid 
the “ congregation” and its pastor, who were now seen exchanging 
with their brethren farewell embraces, and words of encouragement 
and affection. Then they fell off quietly, and allowed the officers to 
resume their places. The royal proclamation, enjoining silence, was 
now read. But on seeing the fire kindled, Mr. Bentham, turning to 
the multitude, exclaimed : “ We know that they are the people of 
God, and therefore we cannot choose but wish well to them, and say, 
God strengthen them !” Then in a still louder voice, he added, 
“Almighty God , for Christ's sake , strengthen them!" Again that 
deep “ amen ! amen !” rose on the air like the sound of many 
waters, and gave solemn pledge, in the face of earth and heaven, that 
the heart and conscience of England must and would be free. 

But it is time we turn to the direct history of the English Bible 
during this bloody reign. 

It is not a little singular that during these five and a half years 
there seems to have been no direct legislation against the use of the 
Scriptures, beyond the proclamation issued by Mary on her accession. 
That the Queen would gladly have followed, in this respect, in her 
father’s early steps, no one can doubt. That she refrained, is a tell¬ 
ing symptom of the state of public opinion. But there were indirect 
methods of securing the same object ; and there is sufficient evidence 
that Bibles were seized and burned, and their readers severely pun¬ 
ished. In 1555 a second proclamation forbade the importation and 
use of all or any of the works of certain authors—thirty-five in num¬ 
ber—whose names are therein specified. Among the twelve English 


THE REIGN OF TERROR. 


1 99 

authors on the list, are Tyndale, Coverdale, and Cranmer ; and though 
their translations of the Bible are not mentioned by name, we may be 
sure that they were not only included under the action of this decree, 
but were the special occasion of it. That it signally failed of the 
desired end, we learn from the tenor of the third proclamation in 
i 55^j which required all “ wicked and seditious books,” to be deliv¬ 
ered up on pain of immediate death , by martial law ! The history 
now to follow furnishes the key to this last measure, which bears upon 
its face the evidence of reckless desperation. Not only were the pre¬ 
viously existing versions still read in secret in every part of England, 
but a new one—in some respects more formidable than either of its 
predecessors—was added to the number several months before the 
death of the unhappy Queen. It is of this version that a brief ac¬ 
count will now be given. 


CHAPTER XXY. 


THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 

A considerable body of the English exiles had established them¬ 
selves at Geneva in Switzerland, then, as ever since, a city eminent 
for theological learning. The English Church at Geneva is said to 
have numbered several hundred members, among whom were many 
distinguished scholars and preachers. Shut up together in this city of 
letters, and with few active duties to occupy their time, it is not 
strange to find them busy in devising plans for benefiting their be¬ 
loved native land. It was, indeed a time of general intellectual 
activity among the learned fugitives scattered through various parts 
of Protestant Europe ; and many excellent works, the fruit of their 
constrained leisure, were sent over to England to supply in some meas¬ 
ure, by the silent labors of the pen, the voice of the living teacher. 

In Geneva this activity very naturally directed itself toward an im¬ 
proved translation of the Scriptures. Such an attempt was fully in 
accordance with the spirit of the age, which had already given birth to 
independent versions and repeated revisions of the English Scriptures ; 
and now demanded the perfecting of this great work. In this respect 
the undertaking presents a wide contrast to that of Tyndale, and 
exhibits in a striking light the changes effected in little more than a 
quarter of a century through the labors of that great man. What 
Anderson well remarks of the version of Coverdale, may with still 
more propriety be applied to this, and to all subsequent attempts in 
the same field : 4 ‘ Their translations were the effect of .the times j the 
times themselves were the effect of Tyndale’s.” This general tendency 
could not fail to receive a powerful impulse in Geneva, where, under 
the leadership of Calvin and Beza, sacred learning was cultivated with 
an ardor and success far in advance of what was witnessed in any 
other portion of Christendom. It is not unlikely, from the circum¬ 
stances, that the first suggestion of the new translation came from 
Calvin himself. Among these is the fact that his brother-in-law, 
William Whittingham, as seems to be now conceded, was the trans¬ 
lator of the New Testament. But whatever its source, the proposi¬ 
tion awoke an instant enthusiasm among the whole body of exiles ; 
and the lay members of the Church encouraged th'e projectors not 


THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 


201 


only with their sympathy, but with offers of all the pecuniary assist¬ 
ance needed to carry it through successfully. Among the most for¬ 
ward in this good work was John Bodleigh, father of the founder of 
the celebrated Bodleian Library, a man of wealth and noble spirit, 
who, on the completion of the version, took upon himself the chief 
cost of its publication.* 

The New Testament was first translated, and was published in 
1557. The ability with which it was executed fully justified the under¬ 
taking. Every page exhibited evidences of the advance of Christian 
scholarship since the appearance of the previous versions. In the 
Address to the Reader, the translator refers to the peculiar advantages 
afforded by his residence and relations in Geneva; “being,” he 
says, “ moved with zeal, counselled by the godly, and drawn by 
occasion, both of the place where God hath appointed us to dwell, 
and also of the store of heavenly learning and judgment which so 
aboundeth in this city of Geneva that justly it may be called the 
patron and mirror of true religion and godliness.” The utmost thor¬ 
oughness was aimed at in the work. Not only was the translation 
made directly from the Greek, aided by comparison with versions in 
other languages, but the Greek text itself (as published by Erasmus) 
was revised by manuscripts which had been collected by the scholars 
of Geneva. When it was completed, Calvin expressed his interest in 
the work by prefixing to it an introduction, which he calls : “ The 
Epistle declaring that Christ is the end of the Law.” It sketches 
briefly and beautifully the progressive steps by which the need of a 
Mediator and Redeemer was made known, and the minds of men 
taught to look forward to him ; till at length, in the fullness of time 
he appeared, and by his miracles, his teachings, his death and ascen¬ 
sion, proved himself to be the long expected hope of the world, to 
which also agreed the witness of inspired men, of angels, and of God 
himself. The divinely authenticated history of these transactions is 
contained in the books of the New Testament, which embodies also 
the teachings of inspired apostles as to the application to be made of 
them for securing our salvation. 

“ All these things are published, declared, written, and sealed to us in this 
Testament, by the which Jesus Christ makes us his heirs in the kingdom of God 
his Father, and declareth unto us his will, as he that maketh his testament to his 
heirs to be put in execution. Now we are all called to this inheritance, without 
putting any manner of difference either between man or woman, small or great, 
servant or lord, master or scholar, clergy or laity, Hebrew, Greek, French, or 
Latin, none of them is refused, if that by assured confidence he embraceth that 


* Anderson, vol. i., p. 322. 


202 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


which is sent unto him ; briefly, whosoever shall acknowledge Jesus Christ such 
as he is ordained of the Father. Therefore,” he continues, “ shall we that bear 
the name of Christians suffer this Testament to be taken from us, or else to be 
hid or corrupted, which so justly is ours, and without the which we can pretend 
to no title to the kingdom of God, without the which we know not the excellent 
graces and promises which Jesus Christ hath declared towards us, neither the 
glory and blessedness which he hath prepared for us ?” . . . “ O Christians, 

understand now and learn this point ; for doubtless the ignorant shall perish in 
his' ignorance, and the blind following another blind shall fall with him into the 
ditch. There is but one way to life and salvation, that is, faith in the assurance 
of God’s promises, which we cannot have without the Gospel.” “ What thing 
might there be then that could unacquaint us and drive us back from this Gospel ? 
Shall injuries, evil sayings, rebukes, loss of worldly honors ? . . . Shall 

banishment, proclamations of attaint, loss of lands and goods ? . . . Shall 

afflictions, prisons, rackings, torments, make us shrink from this Gospel ? We 
learn by Jesus Christ that this is the right path to come to glory. Finally, shall 
death ? Nay, death cannot take away that life which we wish and wait for.” 

The tone of the whole epistle is gentle and tender, as if the heart 
of the writer were melted with sympathy for his persecuted brethren ; 
and his exposition of the offices of Christ, as the all and in all to the 
redeemed, of his infinite worth and the fullness of his love, breathe a 
richness and fervor of piety, which conflicts somewhat with the 
common notion entertained of the stern reformer. 

The New Testament was no sooner completed than the translator, 
now aided by learned associates, of whom Gilby and Sampson, two of 
his distinguished fellow-exiles, are supposed to have been the chief, 
turned his attention to the Hebrew Scriptures. Elizabeth’s accession 
and the consequent happy change of affairs in the autumn of 1558, 
invited them back to England, whither the great body of English 
exiles now returned with joyful haste. But so deeply were they im¬ 
pressed with the importance of finishing the great task they had under¬ 
taken, that for two years longer they denied themselves the sight of 
their native land, and labored, as they tell us, “ day and night,” till it 
was completed. In 1560 the first edition of the complete Genevan 
version appeared in England. 

As Greek philology was far in advance of Hebrew when the former 
versions were made, and much had been accomplished in the latter 
since their time, the Genevan Old Testament exhibited a yet more 
decided improvement than the New. In both divisions, the style of 
the translation shows it to have been an entirely independent render¬ 
ing of the original, neither studiously departing from the former ver¬ 
sions, nor trammeled by them where the translator’s view of the sense 
differed from theirs, or where the same sense can be more clearly ex¬ 
pressed in another form. As compared with Tyndale’s, its manner 


THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 


203 


sometimes appears dry and curt, and we miss in it, or fancy that we 
miss, the glow with which the heart of the old translator suffused his 
phraseology ; but the meaning is often brought out with far greater 
distinctness. The English is in every respect as intelligible as that of 
our common version, not seldom more so, and the two would still 
be read with great profit in connection. It is, indeed, much to be 
regretted that so excellent a version should not be rescued from the 
dust of past ages, and made accessible to English readers as a help 
to the better understanding of their Family Bible. 

Its usefulness and its popularity were much increased by the brief, 
pithy notes added by the translators, containing such information in 
regard to Biblical geography and antiquities, and such doctrinal 
explanations, as were needed for the clear understanding of the text. 
Another feature which indicates the liberal spirit of the translators, is 
the insertion in the margin of various readings, thus placing the 
unlearned reader, so far as possible, in the position of the scholar, 
and allowing him to use his own judgment as to which of the read¬ 
ings suits best with the connection. A less commendable novelty is 
the division of the text into verses, a practice till then unknown in Eng¬ 
lish Bibles, but ever since as pertinaciously adhered to as if an inte¬ 
gral part of the inspired word. No* single thing, probably, had done 
more toward multiplying sects in the Christian body, and substituting 
a dry, dogmatic theology in place of the living sap of revealed truth, 
than this mischievous device, for which there is but one poor plea— 
the advantage of easy reference.* 

To the whole Bible, thus completed, was prefixed an Epistle “ to 
our beloved brethren in England, Scotland, and Ireland,” in which 
they explain their reasons for sending forth a new version. 

“ Now, forasmuch as this thing [progress in a holy life] is chiefly attained by 
the knowledge and practising of the word of God, (which is the light to our 
paths, the key of the kingdom of Heaven, our comfort in affliction, our shield 
and sword against Satan, the school of all wisdom, the glass wherein we behold 
God’s face, the testimony of his favor, and the only food and nourishment of our 
souls,) we thought we could bestow our labors and study in nothing which could 
be more acceptable to God, and comfortable to his Church, than in the translat¬ 
ing bf the Scriptures into our native tongue ; the which thing, albeit that others 
heretofore have endeavored to achieve, yet, considering the infancy of those times 
and imperfect knowledge of the tongues in respect of this ripe age and clear light 
which God hath now revealed, the translations required greatly to be perused 
and reformed.” 

* The Anglo-American revisers of the New Testament have wisely discarded 
this “ mischievous device,” and placed the numbers of chapters and verses in the 
margin.—T. J. C. 


204 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


The Genevan Bible at once found favor with the people and estab¬ 
lished itself in a wonderfully brief period as the Family Bible of 
England. Unsustained and even discountenanced by the ruling 
ecclesiastical powers, it not only supplanted the earlier versions, but 
maintained its place against two powerful competitors of later date, 
as the favorite version of the people, for the greater part of a century. 

During this time, it passed (including the separate issues of the 
New Testament) through a hundred and fifty editions. It even made 
its way to a considerable extent into churches, being preferred by 
many clergymen even after the publication of the Bishops’ Bible. It 
still continued to be printed for private use long after the appearance 
of King James’ revision, the last ascertained edition bearing date 
1644. So pertinaciously, indeed, did the people cling to it, and so 
injurious was its influence to the interests of the Established Church 
and of the “authorized version,’’ that in the reign of Charles I., 
Archbishop Laud made the vending, binding, or importation of it a 
high-commission crime.* Even so late as 1649, an attempt was 
made to commend King James’ Bible to popular favor, thirty-eight 
years from its first publication, by printing with it the Genevan 
Notes ! But after that time, the old Family Bible gradually disap¬ 
peared from the homes and hearths of England, and gave place to 
that which has been so long known and honored as the Common Ver¬ 
sion. f 

The success of the Genevan version is to be explained chiefly from 
two causes : First, its intrinsic merits as a faithful and clear tran¬ 
script of the inspired word, according to the best scholarship of the 
age. Its character in this respect was so unquestionable as to secure 
for it universal respect, and to draw even from those who least liked 
its influence, a frank concession of its excellence. J Second, its origin 
in the stronghold of Presbyterianism, its connection with the name of 
Calvin, and with the doctrines, the severe simplicity in forms, and 
the comparative Christian equality prevailing in the Genevan Church, 
commended it to the warmest sympathy of that large and increasing 
body, the Puritan party in the Church of England. To them it 
became the symbol of all they wished to see in their native land, of a 
church reform which should sweep away everything in Christian wor¬ 
ship borrowed from the traditions of the Church of Rome, and which 

* Anderson, vol. ii., p. 390. 

f It is worthy of note, that it is to the Genevan version we owe the fine expres¬ 
sion in Dan. vii. 9, “The Ancient of days.” All the previous versions had 
the awkward and unmeaning phrase, “ the Old Aged !”—T. J. C. 

% Strype’s Life of Archbishop Parker, p. 207. 


THE GENEVAN BIBLE. 


205 


should conform it, outwardly as well as inwardly, to the model fur¬ 
nished in the word of God. How much it thus did, directly and in¬ 
directly, both for the spread of real piety, and for the development of 
Puritanism, and of the spirit of religious and civil liberty in England, 
it is impossible to estimate. 

What cause is it for regret that its influence should not have been 
wholly on the side of truth and freedom ! But the Genevan associa¬ 
tions, so intimately linked with its existence, were not all beneficial. 
Genevan Presbyterianism—far as it had advanced in other respects— 
had not learned to respect the rights of conscience. While she 
secured Christian liberty in larger measure and to a greater number 
than did her Anglican sister, her hand was no less heavy on those 
outside her consecrated pale ; and the sword of the magistrate was 
recognized as well by Calvin as by Cranmer, as the proper guardian 
of the purity and order of the Church of Christ. 

This spirit had left its impress, in no questionable characters, on 
the Genevan Bible. The Old Testament had been completed in the 
initial period of Elizabeth’s reign, when her policy as yet seemed 
undecided, and the reform party indulged the confident expectation 
that the English Church, shattered to its foundations by Mary, would 
be reconstructed in accordance with their views. Under this exhila¬ 
rating idea the translators in the dedication of their work to that 
“ most vertuous and noble ladie, ” thus exhorted her to exercise her 
powers as civil ruler for the suppression of error and establishment of 
truth : 

“ Now as he that goeth about to lay a foundation surely, first taketh away such 
impediments as might justly either hurt, let, or deform the work ; so is it neces¬ 
sary that your Grace’s zeal appear herein, that neither the crafty persuasion of 
man, neither worldly policy nor natural fear dissuade you to root out, cut down, 
and destroy those weeds and impediments which do not only deface your build¬ 
ing, but utterly endeavor—yea, and threaten the ruin thereof. For when the 
noble Josias enterprised the like kind of work, among other notable and many 
things, he destroyed not only with utter confuion the idols and their appurte¬ 
nances, but also burnt (in sign of detestation) the idolatrous priests’ bones upon 
their altars, and put to death the false prophets and sorcerers, to perform the 
words of the law of God : and therefore God gave him good success, and blessed 
him wonderfully, so long as he made God’s word his line and rule to follow, and 
enterprised nothing before he had enquired at the mouth of the Lord. 

“ And if these zealous beginnings seem dangerous, and to breed disquietness 
in your dominions, yet by the story of King Asa it is manifest that the quietness 
and peace of kingdoms standeth in the utter abolishing of idolatry, and in ad¬ 
vancing of true religion ; for in his days Judah lived in rest and quietness for the 
space of five and thirty years, till at length he began to be cold in the zeal of the 


206 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Lord, feared the power of man, imprisoned the prophet of God, and oppressed 
the people ; then the Lord sent him wars, and at length took him by death. 

“ Moreover, the marvellous diligence and zeal of Jehoshaphat, Jbsiah, and 
Hezekiah are, by the singular providence of God, left as an example to all godly 
rulers to reform their countries, and to establish the word of God with all speed, 
lest the wrath of God fall upon them from the neglecting thereof. For these ex¬ 
cellent kings did not only embrace the word promptly and joyfully, but also pro¬ 
cured earnestly, and commanded the same to be taught, preached, and main¬ 
tained through all their countries and dominions—binding them and all their 
subjects, both great and small, with solemn protestations and covenants before 
God, to obey the word, and walk after the ways of the Lord. Yea, and in the 
days of King Asa it was enacted that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of 
Israel should be slain, whether he were small or great, man or woman.” 

The shrewd Princess was quite ready to acknowledge the principle 
thus laid down, but not the application of it intended by its exposi¬ 
tors. If conjecture is right in regard to the names of the translators, 

% some of the very men who penned this dangerous counsel and made 
God’s charter of human rights the medium for communicating it to 
the royal mind, were soon made to drink deeply of the cup which 
they had mixed for others. Yet even the humiliations so steadfastly 
endured, and the blood so freely shed by Puritans in this and the 
succeeding reigns in behalf of religious liberty, could not eradicate 
from their veins this early taint. Not till they had breathed the free 
air of the western wilderness two hundred years, did they fully learn 
the lesson that Christianity can live and flourish unprotected by the 
State. 

Thus the English Bible went forth once more in increased energy, 
still restricted in its action by human infirmity, but bearing within 
itself the power gradually to overcome and subdue all that could hin¬ 
der the perfect fulfillment of its mission. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 

In 1561, the third year of Elizabeth’s reign, John Bodleigh, with 
whom we have already become acquainted in the account of the Gene¬ 
van Bible, obtained from the Queen’s government a patent for the ex¬ 
clusive right to print that version during the seven years next ensuing. 
In 1566, having a thoroughly revised edition ready for the press, and 
wishing to print it in England, he applied to Cecil, the Queen’s Secre¬ 
tary, for an extension of this license. Before giving him a reply, 
Cecil consulted with Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Grindal, 
Bishop of London. Their answer contains three striking points. 
First, a recognition from these dignitaries of the great merit of the 
Genevan Bible, on which account they recommended the extension of 
Bodleigh’s privilege to twelve years longer ; secondly, the announce¬ 
ment of their design to set forth a special translation for use in 
churches ; thirdly, the condition proposed to be annexed to Bodleigh’s 
patent, viz., a promise, “ in writing under his hand, that no impres¬ 
sion of the Genevan Bible should pass without their direction, consent , 
and advice." 

To elucidate the bearings of this reply requires a brief view of the 
policy now established in the Elizabethan Church ; a policy which 
continued to govern it with extended claims and increasing force, till 
in the hands of Charles I., the overstrung bow broke with its own ten¬ 
sion, and State-Church and Church-State fell in common ruin. 

At the accession of Elizabeth, there were tokens that the spirit of 
Christian liberality and union had very considerably increased among 
English Protestants. Their common sufferings during the preceding 
bloody reign, and the fraternal sympathy and hospitality which they 
had received from the reformed churches abroad, had at once exalted 
in their regard the essential grounds of faith in which they agreed, 
and lowered their estimate of the external forms in which they dif¬ 
fered. In anticipation of the reorganization of the English Church, a 
general disposition was manifested to lay stress on an exact outward 
uniformity, and to leave the details of habits and ceremonies to indi¬ 
vidual conscience and discretion. The letters of the returned exiles 
to their Presbyterian brethren on the continent not only breathe this 


208 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


spirit of conciliation, but show a decided leaning toward the simpler 
and more democratic form of Church government which prevailed in 
the Swiss churches, as being more closely conformed to the New 
Testament model, and better adapted to the edification of the people.* 

But in this they had reckoned without their host. Elizabeth had 
no intention of being a whit less a monarch than her father. She 
valued the Reformation not so much for the truth it propagated as for 
the foundation it offered for her own supremacy. She did not wish 
the Pope of Rome to rule in her dominions, because she wished to be 
herself Pope, sole ruler over the actions and the consciences of her 
subjects. In the preceding reign she had conformed to the dominant 
faith, probably without much violence to her principles ; and her 
tastes were at least fully in harmony with its aristocratical constitu¬ 
tion and its pompous ritual. But under no circumstances could she 
have become the devotee of any religion. Her clear, masculine intel¬ 
lect, cold heart, and iron will, moved but at the bidding of one pas¬ 
sion, and that the least religious of all passions, the love of power. 
Religion was to her simply the right hand of that power. As such, it 
was to be cherished ; but, as such also, to be held in strict subjection, 
and to be employed in whatever service would promote her grand 
design. She was quick to see that only a despotism in the Church 
could form a sure basis for despotism in the State. Men accustomed 
in the management of their religious affairs to freedom of opinion and 
action, would soon begin to enquire whether they were not competent 
to exercise the same freedom in regard to all things which concerned 
their interest and happiness. Popular elections in the Church were 
dangerous precedents to be admitted into an absolute monarchy such 
as she sought to establish ; while the habit of unquestioning subjec¬ 
tion to authority in matters of conscience was the surest guarantee of 
docility to the civil power. Under a government which united in one 
person the highest ecclesiastical and the highest civil authority, this 
result was inevitable. So, accordingly, she willed it to be. 

The state of the nation at her accession gave free scope to her am¬ 
bitious plans. Ignorant of their own rights and their own strength, 
never yet having felt the invigorating thrill of conscious freedom, her 
subjects had no other idea of security than that of clinging like timid 
children, to the skirts of royalty. Majesty was then at its highest 
premium in England. Its frowns were like the artillery of heaven, 
terrible yet glorious to behold ; its smile melted the blessed recipient, 
as the sun melts wax, into whatever shape it might please the imperial 


* Burnet, vol. ii. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 


209 


will to cast him. Protestant Elizabeth, with her large, self-reliant, 
dauntless nature, seemed to her poor, distracted people like a strong 
tower into which they might run and be safe ; and every prerogative 
which could be taken from other hands and placed in hers, was sup¬ 
posed to be so much gained toward their well-being. Her first Parlia¬ 
ment invested her with powers which, though nominally restricted by 
the Constitution, rendered her in fact absolute by law. 

Two principal enactments, which fixed as in an iron mold the char¬ 
acter of her long reign, distinguished this session. The first recog¬ 
nized the royal supremacy in all causes, ecclesiastical and civil ; the 
second established uniformity in religion as the law of the land. A 
clause in the first of these Acts empowered the Queen and her succes¬ 
sors to delegate to such of her subjects as they shall think meet, as 
often and for as long time as they please, “ all manner of jurisdic¬ 
tion, privileges, and preeminences touching any spiritual or ecclesias¬ 
tical jurisdiction within the realms of England and Ireland, to visit, 
reform, redress, order, correct, and amend all errors, heresies, 
schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities whatsoever.” 
Under this clause originated the High Commission, an ecclesiastical 
court appointed by the Queen, and accountable to her alone, through 
which for nearly half a century she and her bishops ruled with an 
iron rod over the consciences of her subjects. The jurisdiction of 
this court extended over the whole kingdom, and included alike clergy 
and laity. Any three members of it were competent to inquire, “ on 
the oath of twelve men, by witnesses, or by any other ways and means 
they could devise,” * respecting all offences against the Acts of 
Supremacy and Uniformity, “ and also to inquire of all heretical 
opinions, seditious books, contempts, conspiracies, false rumors or 
talks, slanderous words and sayings, etc., contrary to the aforesaid 
laws, or any others ordained for the maintenance of religion in this 
realm, together with their abettors, counsellors, and coadjutors.” 
Any three of them—the Primate or a bishop being one—were com¬ 
petent to try all cases of willful absence from the divine service, as 
established by law, and to punish the offenders by Church censures, 
or by fines levied on their lands, goods, and tenements. Any three 
of them might try the holder of any ecclesiastical living on matters 
of faith and doctrine, and eject him at their discretion. Any six of 
them, whereof some must be bishops, might “ examine, alter, review, 
and amend the statues of colleges, cathedrals, grammar-schools, and 

* “ That is,” says Neal, “ by the inquisition, by the rack, by torture, or any 
ways and means that forty-four sovereign judges should devise” ; or, it should 
be added, any three of them. 


210 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


other public foundations.” It was a part of their duty to tender the 
oath of supremacy to all ministers, and to report the names of such as 
refused it to the King’s Bench. The most odious feature of this 
odious system, was the power vested in the Commissioners to sum¬ 
mon before them any person, merely upon suspicion, and without 
exhibiting any charge against him, or confronting him with witnesses, 
to compel him, by the oath ex officio , to testify against himself. Many 
were thus forced not only to convict themselves, but their nearest 
relatives and friends. But no man was cleared on his own oath. 
This method of making a man his own accuser in a court of justice 
was sufficiently detestable in the hands of a Romish Bishop or Chan¬ 
cellor ; but in them it was consistent. How Protestant bishops and 
statesmen could use it, and look a Papist in the face, is a riddle. The 
mandates of this court, or of any three of its members, were made 
binding on “ all justices of peace, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, consta¬ 
bles, and all other officers, ministers and subjects, in all and every 
place, exempt or not exempt, within the realm ; neglect of the same 
to be answered at their utmost perils.” * They had their spies in all 
suspected parishes, to note such as did not come regularly to church ; 
and these being summoned and committed to prison, the keepers were 
to mark such as came to visit and relieve them, and give information 
accordingly, f 

A powerful ally to the High Commission was furnished by the Star 
Chamber, a criminal court, likewise appointed by the Queen, and 
responsible to her alone ; whose decisions, though merely expressions 
of the royal will, were made as binding as Acts of Parliament. The 
High Commission, being an ecclesiastical court, had some limit in 
the nature of offences, and was not competent to inflict heavier penal¬ 
ties than fines, deprivation, and imprisonment ; though in both these 
points it stretched its powers beyond all legal bounds. But whatever 
it could not do, the Star Chamber could ; and moreover, noncon¬ 
formity to the established Church being constituted disobedience to the 
realm, such ecclesiastical cases as required severer punishments than 
the former was competent to inflict, could be turned over to the latter, 
which had the power of life and death. Both bodies being composed 
in part of the same men, and the monarch supreme in both, they could 
play unchecked into each others’ hands ; and they were, in fact, but 
the mutual complements of that system of despotic rule by which she 
was able to override constitution and statute, and reduce her subjects 

* See Strype’s Life of Archbishop Grindal, Appendix No. vi.— The Ecclesiasti¬ 
cal commission granted to the High Commission , & 3 c. 

f Neal, vol. i., p. 130. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 


211 


to mere dependents on her supreme will and pleasure.* It was due 
to Elizabeth’s great personal qualities ; her self-control, which could 
sometimes forbear a present advantage rather than endanger a greater 
one to come ; her wisdom, which could discern in the substantial 
prosperity of her realm the surest basis of her own supremacy ; and 
to the further fact that, having no standing army to enforce her de¬ 
crees, her power rested wholly in the affection and confidence of her 
people, that the nation so long bowed patiently to her heavy yoke, 
and that even those who suffered most, maintained to the last their 
loyalty and affection for her person, f 

The Queen had not far to look for instruments to carry out her 
plans. It was, at first, her hope that the Romish prelates who occu¬ 
pied the high positions of the Church at her accession, would, as had 
been the case with Henry’s bishops, acknowledge her supremacy and 
retain their places. This expectation proving vain, the Queen turned 
to the reformed clergy. Had they, at this moment, stood firmly 
united in the views entertained by the great majority, that a certain 
prescribed cut of the clerical garb must not be made the condition of 
office in the Christian church, what a glorious epoch might this have 
proved for the Reformation in England ! For at this period of its 
history there was no disagreement in respect to doctrine, and none 
that was insurmountable in respect to discipline ; and Elizabeth and 
her counsellors were too wise to have allowed, on such grounds, a 
breach between herself and the united English clergy. Had but this 
seemingly little stumbling-block now been removed out of the way, the 
Church would have been replenished with a learned, godly ministry, 

* Even that last refuge of liberty, the right of petitioning against existing 
grievances, was denied by this imperious princess, and that not to private indi¬ 
viduals alone, but to Parliament itself. In 1586, the House of Commons, having 
prayed for a modification in the Church Constitution, were told in reply that 
“ Her Majesty took their petition herein to be against the prerogative of her 
crown. For by their full consents, it hath been confirmed and enacted, (as the 
truth herein requireth), that the full power, authority, jurisdiction and supremacy 
in Church causes, which heretofore the Popes usurped and took unto themselves, 
should be annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm.”— Strype's 
Life of Whitgift , p. 260. 

f This was remarkably exemplified in the case of Mr. Stubbs, a student of 
Lincoln’s Inn, and brother-in-law of that distinguished nonconformist leader, 
Thomas Cartright. Stubbs had written a tract against the Queen’s projected 
marriage with the Duke of Anjou, who, being a Papist, would, it was feared, be 
the means of restoring Romanism in England ; and for the offence was con¬ 
demned to lose his right hand. The instant the crueL sentence was executed, by 
driving a cleaver through his wrist with a mallet, he pulled off his hat with the 
remaining hand and cried with a loud voice, “ God save the Queen !” 


212 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


mellowed by recent suffering, yet glowing with that active, aggressive 
zeal for the Gospel which always marks the growth-periods of the 
Christian body. But it was not so to be. When that which had 
hitherto been theory became a question of practice, many faltered in 
their convictions. Might it not be duty, they asked, to sacrifice their 
feelings on these unessential points, rather than leave the Church 
wholly unfurnished with a Protestant ministry ? Should they not, in¬ 
deed, by this present small compliance, be securing the power neces¬ 
sary to bring all things right in the end ? It was a tempting but a 
poisoned bait, as might soon be discerned by the change in the spirit 
of those who yielded. Some of the conforming bishops continued to 
regard the contested points as really matters of indifference, and some¬ 
times pleaded earnestly for their brethren whom- they had left : but 
the majority quickly caught the temper of their royal head, and 
almost outstripped her wishes, at least her views of what was prudent, 
by the vigor with which they pressed conformity. Thus did a slight 
compromise with conscience corrupt men whose bearing under poverty, 
persecution and exile had cast fresh lustre on the faith which they 
professed. 

At this point, the Protestant host of England parted into two hostile 
bands, never again to reunite. On the one side was the rich and gor¬ 
geous Church, linked indissolubly with the State ; an almost absolute 
sovereign their common head ; the whole legislative and executive 
power of the kingdom at their command. On the other were a few 
hundred ministers, confessedly the flower of the English clergy, but in 
regard to all their temporal interests, their personal freedom and even 
life, wholly at the mercy of their antagonists. The friends of Protes¬ 
tantism abroad beheld the spectacle with mortification and dismay ; 
and some of those who had most warmly urged on the adherents of 
reform, now counselled compliance rather than allow a breach so dis¬ 
astrous to religion, so favorable to the resuscitation of Popery. We 
who can look back not only upon the conflict but its results, bless 
that immovable adherence to principle which refused to do evil that 
good might come. In the decision of those Puritan ministers were 
involved not only the religious but the civil liberties of the English 
race. For it may be safely affirmed that at the period now before us 
no power less strong than conscience, the fear of sinning against 
God, could have strengthened men to oppose the sweeping tide of 
absolutism. Under the prevailing influences of the time, with a mon¬ 
arch like Elizabeth, at once despotic and popular, wise to govern and 
strong to defend her people, civil freedom would have been readily 
bartered for peace, security, and Protestantism. But conscience was 



THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 


213 


something which these men dared not barter. Resistance to oppres¬ 
sion was here not a matter at their option, but a duty to God which 
they could not evade. Their example became the starting point of 
free ideas ; and the English people learned at length to question 
whether they had been made for the sole purpose of being governed. 

The contest was at first rather of a negative character, consisting, 
on the one side, more in a systematic neglect of the nonconforming 
clergy than in positive persecution ; and on th£ir part in a persevering | 
adherence to their own views of duty. The new Primate, Matthew] 
Parker, had enough to do for a while in securing his own position, 
and bringing into order that numerous body of the clergy who still 
adhered to the doctrines of Popery. During this interval, the Act of 
Uniformity was not rigorously pressed, and a considerable number of 
ministers who had not subscribed it made their way into inferior places 
in the Church. These were the preachers of England. Where they 
were found, there was found also a new religious life among the peo¬ 
ple, and the errors and superstitions of Popery confessed a power in 
their zealous labors and holy examples, not acknowledged in parlia¬ 
mentary acts and royal injunctions. Among them was Miles Cover- 
dale, once Bishop of Exeter, more known and honored still as a 
Translator of the Bible into his mother tongue ; but who was now 
thankful to be allowed, unpunished, to preach the Gospel here and 
there as he could find opportunity. Grindal, Bishop of London, a 
man of kind natural disposition, at length so far compassionated his 
gray hairs and pitiable state of poverty, as to procure for him in 1562 
the little parish of St. Magnus, London, without requiring conformity. 
Among them was also John Foxe, whose Book of Martyrs had done 
more than any other work except the Bible to establish the Reforma¬ 
tion in the people’s hearts ; but who was left unprovided for in the 
Church which he had laid under so sacred a debt, till Cecil, the 
Queen’s Secretary, obtained for frim on his own terms, a prebendary 
in Salisbury Church.* The universities, moreover, did not join in 
this wholesale proscription of men for a matter of opinion which 
affected neither the doctrine nor the life. Sampson f and Hum¬ 
phrey, then the great leaders of the nonconformist party, were both 
called to Oxford ; the first, who had previously refused the bishopric 
of Norwich on the stipulated condition, as Dean of Christ church, the 

* In 1560, he describes himself in a letter to a friend, as a member “ of the 
Order of Mendicants, or of the Friar-Preachers'’ ; and says that he was “ still 
wearing the clothes that England received him in.” 

f Sampson, it will be remembered, was one of the translators of the Genevan 
Bible. 


214 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


other as President of Magdalen College, and were there held in the 
highest repute for their learning and virtue. Under these circum¬ 
stances, the neglect of the prescribed habits arid ceremonies had 
greatly increased in the Church ; so that “ the Queen,” as Strype in¬ 
forms us, “ had taken a great offence at many of the clergy, having 
information how remiss they were, both in the university and out of 
it, especially in the city of London, in wearing the habits appointed 
for the clergy to use in time of ministration and at other times ; 
chiefly the square cap, the tippet, and the surplice.” So far indeed 
were the consecrated vestments from being regarded with due rever¬ 
ence that they had become a jest and by-word with many both of the 
clergy and laity, who called them the “ conjuring garments of 
Popery” ; while the bishops themselves were dignified with the titles 
of “ White-Coats, and Tippet Gentlemen.” Some, moreover, had 
begun profanely to inquire : “ Who gave them authority more over 
me than I over them, either to forbid me preaching, or to deprive me, 
unless they have it from their Holy Father the Pope?”* Her 
Majesty, therefore, in January 1564, directed her Archbishop and 
other bishops of the High Commission, “ that orders might be taken 
whereby all diversities and varieties among the clergy and laity, as 
breeding nothing but contention and breach of common charity, and 
against the laws and good usage and ordinances of the realm, might 
be reformed and repressed, and brought to one manner of uniformity 
throughout the realm.” 

The Archbishop himself thought it now high time to look into 
these, irregular proceedings, and to bring this free-spoken ministry 
into a wholesome subjection. The following list of the dangerous 
varieties in divine service then practised by clergymen, is quoted by 
Strype from a manuscript copy found among the papers of Secretary 
Cecil, dated Februaryiqth, 1564. 

“ Varieties in the Service and Administration used. 

Service and Prayer. 

Some say the Service and Prayers in the chancel, others in the body of the 
Church. Some say the same in a seat made in the church ; some in the pulpit 
with their faces to the people. Some say it with a surplice, other without a sur¬ 
plice. 

Table. 

The table standeth in the body of the church in some places ; in others it 
standeth in the chancel. In some places the table standeth altar-wise, distant 
irom the wall yard. In some places in the midle of the chancel, north and south. 

* Strype’s Life of Archbishop Parker, p. 151. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 21 5 

In some places the table is joined ; in others, it standeth upon tressels. In some 
it standeth upon a carpet ; in others it hath none. 

Administration of the Communion. 

Some with surplice and cap ; some with surplice alone ; others with none. 
Some with chalice ; some with a communion cup ; others with a common cup. 
Some with unleavened bread ; some with leavened. 

Receiving. 

Some receive kneeling, others standing, others sitting. 

Baptizing. 

Some baptize in a font ; some in a basin. Some sign with the sign of the 
cross ; others sign not. Some minister in a t.urplice ; others without. 

Apparel. 

Some with a square cap ; some with a round cap ; some with a button cap ; 
some with a hat. Some in scholars’ clothes ; some in others.” 

It has been objected to the Puritans that their grounds of dissent 
were trivial, and insufficient to justify a schism in the Christian body. 
Since God regards merely the heart and not the dress, or place, or 
posture, why, it is urged, could they not have sacrificed their own 
feelings in these indifferent points, to the preservation of Christian 
unity ? To this argument they replied, at the time, that things in 
themselves indifferent changed their nature when imposed on the 
Church of Christ as necessary, by a self-constituted power. They 
then became the test of a vital principle, viz., whether or not there 
resided in any individual, or in any body, ecclesiastical or civil, the 
competency of extra-Scriptural legislation for the Church ; in other 
words, whether the Bible were the sufficient and only authoritative 
standard for the Church in all matters, and as well in regard to her 
order and discipline as to her doctrine. Elizabeth and her Primate 
held the negative of this question. They maintained, that it was from 
the necessities of the time alone that the apostolic Churches received 
their peculiar form, which, therefore, was temporary and not to be 
accepted as the permanent model ; and that it belongs to the govern¬ 
ment of each country to settle the organization, rites, and observ¬ 
ances, of that division of the Church lying within its territory, and to 
enforce them on all its subjects. The Puritans, on the contrary, held 
to the sufficiency and binding authority of the Scriptures in all 
respects ; and refused, by submission to ceremonies in themselves in¬ 
different to acknowledge what they believed an unlawful and indeed 
fatal principle. 


2l6 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


But they had a farther objection. What to the educated and en¬ 
lightened were things indifferent, were not so to the people. In their 
eyes, the clerical vestments stood for the doctrines with which they 
had been accustomed to associate them. Some, we are told, now re¬ 
garded the surplice with a superstitious reverence scarcely exceeded 
by that once felt for the monk’s cowl, a fragment of which was looked 
on as the possessor’s sure passport to heaven. The embroidered 
cross on the cope was to them the symbol of image-worship. The 
kneeling posture at the Supper, the chalice, and the hallowed wafer, 
to them recognized the Mass, a propitiatory sacrifice for sin. A still 
larger number viewed all these things with horror, as the badge of that 
cruel faith which had lighted the fires of Smithfield, and drank the 
blood of their nearest relatives, friends, and neighbors, and of the 
faithful ministers of Christ. While, therefore, the prelates were seek¬ 
ing to conceal the greenness of their new Church from the popular eye 
under this garb of antiquity, and to soften the shock of change to the 
adherents of Popery by retaining whatever was possible of the shows 
of the old faith, the nonconforming clergy felt themselves bound, by 
the New Testament law of brotherly love, to countenance nothing 
which might cause their weak brother to offend ; and claimed that the 
Church of Christ should be set forth before the eyes of the people, in 
sharpest outward contrast with the church of Antichrist.* 

Thus, in regard to everything external, the Church planted itself at 
this crisis on the Romish ground of tradition and human authority ; 
the Puritans took their position no less firmly on the great Protestant 
principle—the Bible the only guide of faith and practice. 

* It has always been the fashion with “ liberal ” historians, while they admit 
the great results to civil freedom from the position taken in this controversy by 
the Puritans, to sneer at the position itself as that of narrow'-minded bigots. 
Even Mr. Macaulay seems not to have considered, in reference to their case, 
(Hist. Eng., vol. i., p. 50), that things trivial in themselves may become great by 
their relations and bearings. Eve’s taking the apple was a very little thing in 
itself ; but as the exponent of a principle it decided the fate of a world. William 
Tell’s refusal to take off his hat to Gessler’s pole was a very little thing ; but it 
marked the dividing line between Swiss slavery and Swiss freedom. The Stamp 
Act was a very small grievance ; but as a test-measure on the part of England, 
resistance to it became the turning-point of American independence. Of pre¬ 
cisely this character was the prescription of clerical vestments, and of a certain 
unalterable round of church forms ; and so was it regarded alike by those who 
urged and those who refused them. “ Doth your Lordship think,” thus writes 
Parker, on his death-bed, to Lord Burleigh, “ that I care either for cap, tippet, 
surplice, wafer-bread, or any such? But for the law so established I esteem 
them. For contempt of Law and Authority would follow and be the end of it, 
unless discipline were used.”— Strype s Life of Parker y p. 492. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 


217 


Fully awake to the alarming spirit of innovation and independence 
now manifesting itself in the Church, the Archbishop and his coadju¬ 
tors in the Commission immediately prepared a set of Articles for the 
regulation of divine service, to which universal and unvarying con¬ 
formity should be required. He then proceeded to cite many Puritan 
ministers before the Commission, and endeavored by admonitions 
and threats to induce compliance. Sampson and Humphrey were 
summoned from their duties at Oxford, and after being detained a 
year in attendance at court, at great expense and discomfort to them¬ 
selves, were deprived of their offices and thrown into prison, where 
Sampson remained some months. In 1564, a royal proclamation en¬ 
joining uniformity in apparel having been obtained from the Queen, 
the Archbishop took a still higher tone, and fell to the task of com¬ 
pelling men to think alike, in a spirit more befitting a Papal legate or 
inquisitor than a Protestant bishop. This year he cited the entire 
body of the pastors and curates of London, and required from them a 
promise and subscription under their own hands, to comply with the 
apparel prescribed by law. The 24th of March, 1564, was a dark 
day to the London clergy. No remonstrance, no discussion was per¬ 
mitted. Beside the commissioners stood one Robert Coles, (a Lon¬ 
don minister who had once refused the habits, but afterward con¬ 
formed), and arrayed in the prescribed vestments, square cap, tippet, 
and priest’s robe, all according to statute. “ My masters and ye 
ministers of London,” said the Bishop’s Chancellor, “ the council’s 
pleasure is that strictly ye keep the unity of apparel like to this 
man as you see him ; that is, a square cap, a scholar’s gown, priest¬ 
like, a tippet, and in the church a linen surplice ; and inviolably ob¬ 
serve the rubric of the Book of Common Prayer, and the Queen s 
Majesty’s injunctions and the Book of Convocation. Ye that will 
subscribe, write Volo ; ye that will not subscribe, write Nolo. Be 
brief. Make your words.” When some of the unhappy men, many 
of whom had wives and children depending for support on their small 
stipends, attempted to speak—“ Peace, peace !” cried the Chancel¬ 
lor. ” Apparitor, call over the churches, and ye masters answer 
presently, sub pana contemptus .” “ By these resolute doings,” adds 
the grave narrator, ‘‘were many of the incumbents and ministers 
present mightily surprised.” Of the ninety-eight, sixty-one were in¬ 
duced, though with much difficulty, to subscribe ; and we cannot 
doubt that of these many returned to their homes with a heavier load 
than a starving family on their hearts. Some cried out in the anguish 
of their spirits : ‘‘ We are killed in the soul of our souls for this pol¬ 
lution of ours !” Thirty seven steadfastly refused to set their hands 


218 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


to a lie ; and were immediately suspended from all exercise of the 
ministerial vocation, and threatened with deprivation, if they did not 
conform within three months. These, by Parker’s own admission, 
were the choicest members of the London clergy.* 

These measures were followed by a set of injunctions for the Lon¬ 
don clergy, “ such,” says Neal, “ as had never been heard of in a 
Protestant kingdom or a free government.” Every clergyman who 
had cure of souls was obliged to swear obedience: “ i. To all the 
Queen’s injunctions and letters patent ; 2. To all letters from lords 
of the privy council ; 3. To the articles and injunctions of the metro¬ 
politan ; 4. To the articles and mandates of their bishop, archdeacon, 
chancellors, somners, receivers, etc., and in a word to be subject to 
the control of all their superiors with patience.’' To forestall all pos¬ 
sibility of evading these demands, from four to eight informers were 
appointed in each parish to watch over the conformity of both clergy 
and laity, and give their testimony accordingly, whenever required. 

Could men with any conscience, with a spark of honor or self- 
respect, submit to a slavery like this ? Miles Coverdale could not 
keep his little living on these terms ; but old and infirm as he was, 
being now eighty years of age, he preferred to risk the bread and 
shelter for his last days rather than soil his conscience. But he felt 
in his soul a commission as minister of Christ which no mortal could 
recall ; and he continued, though with much fear and caution, to 
preach the Gospel in and about London till near his death in 1567. 
It had been determined to make an example of John Foxe, by way of 
striking terror into his less distinguished brethren. But the sturdy 
old Puritan was more than a match for them. When required to 
subscribe, he drew his Greek New Testament from his pocket, say¬ 
ing : “ To this will I subscribe.” To the threat of deprivation he 
replied : “ I have nothing in the Church but a prebendary in Salis¬ 
bury, and much good may it do you if you take it from me.” Their 
resolution failed, and they did not venture to touch a man so dear to 
the whole nation as the historian of the martyrs. 

A letter addressed in 156& by Coverdale, Sampson and Humphrey 
to several of the leading Swiss reformers, gives some idea of the 
state of distress then existing. 

* Strype’s Lives of Archbishops Grindal and Parker. The incidents of the 
above account are taken from the former work, where they are most fully given ; 
the number of ministers present, and the proportion between the subscribers and 
non-subscribers, from the latter ; which being the later work, and the statement 
made on the authority of Archbishop Parker, who had the names before him, is 
undoubtedly correct. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE. 


219 


“ Our affairs,” they write, “ are not altered for the better, but, alas ! are sadly 
deteriorated. For it is now settled and determined that an unleavened cake must 
be used in place of common bread ; that the communion must be received by the 
people on their bended knees ; that out of doors must be worn the square cap, 
bands, a long gown, and tippet ; while the white surplice and cope are to be re¬ 
tained in divine service. And those who refuse to comply with these require¬ 
ments are deprived of their estates, dignities, and every ecclesiastical office ; viz., 
brethren by brethren and bishops, whose houses are, at this time, the prisons of 
some preachers ; who are now raging against their own bowels ; who are now 
imposing these burdens not only on their own persons, but also on the shoulders 
of others ; and this too at a time when, in the judgment of all learned men, they 
ought to have been removed and abolished altogether.” 

But this is not the place for the details of that memorable conflict. 
The brief sketch just given of its incipient stages exhibits its grounds 
and the spirit in which it was conducted sufficiently for the purpose 
of our present history. As was inevitable, the breach continually 
widened. Multiplied exactions and increased rigor on the one side, 
rising at length to a denial of all the inborn rights of man, freedom of 
action, speech and thought, were met by increased firmness of resist¬ 
ance, and a bold questioning of the very foundations of the Church, 
from which the persecuted had at first only differed in some minor 
particulars. The weapons used by the two great parties in the con¬ 
flict were in harmony with the fundamental principles on which they 
had respectively taken their stand. On the side of the ruling party, 
the forcible repression of discussion ; the limitation and rigid censor¬ 
ship of the press ;* the seizure of pious men and women who had met 

* See the “ Rules and Ordinances made and set forth by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury and Lords of the Privy Council, in the Star Chamber, for redressing 
abuses in Printing”; Strype’s Life of Whitgift, Appendix No. XXIV. By this 
extraordinary instrument every printer was required to deliver within ten days 
from its date, an inventory of the number of his presses and of all his imple¬ 
ments, on pain of their seizure and destruction, and twelve months’ personal im¬ 
prisonment “ without bail or mainprize.” No person should hereafter set up a 
press anywhere except in London and its suburbs, (one excepted in each Uni¬ 
versity), nor within those limits except by leave of the Archbishop of Canterbury 
and Bishop of London, on the same penalty ; with the addition of being disabled 
forever from owning or managing a press, or being connected with the business 
in any way except as a journeyman for wages. No person should continue to 
use or occupy a press erected within the previous six months, on the penalty first 
named. No person should print a book not authorized by the Archbishop or the 
Bishop of London, on penalty of the loss of his instruments, six months’ impris¬ 
onment without bail, and perpetual disability to exercise or derive any benefit 
from his trade. No person should sell, bind, stitch, or sew any book not thus 
authorized on pain of three months’ imprisonment. All workshops and ware¬ 
houses of printers, booksellers, and bookbinders, and all private houses were to 


220 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


quietly to worship God ; the monopoly of schools ;* the inquisito¬ 
rial tribunals which arraigned men on suspicion, and condemned them 
on their own forced confessions, or the testimony of secret inform¬ 
ers,! to prison, exile, mutilation and hanging ; take us back to the 
days of Henry IV., and we ask with a bewildered feeling, “ Is this 
the Reformation ?” On the other side, in the measures of the Puri¬ 
tans we recognize those moral weapons with which the victories of 
truth have ever been won ; viz., the calm but unflinching exercise of 
the rights of conscience, and the steadfast passive endurance of the 
penalties thereby incurred. They preached, they wrote, they peti¬ 
tioned, and they suffered, through more than a generation, with a 
resolution and constancy which nothing could subdue. The usual 
result followed. The cause of the persecuted grew by being trodden 
on ; and before the scepter dropped from the hand of the aged 
Queen, not only a majority of the middle and lower ranks and of the 
House of Commons, but a powerful party in the Court itself, gave 
their entire sympathy to the advocates of religious freedom. The 
end of the battle was indeed yet far off ; but the moral convictions of 
the nation indicated with prophetic certainty what that end would be. 

be open to search for books printed in contrariety to these ordinances, and all 
persons implicated in the printing, selling, uttering, binding, stitching, or sewing 
of the same, to be apprehended for trial before the High Commission, or three 
of its members, the Archbishop of Canterbury or Bishop of London being one. 
“For the avoiding of the excessive number of Printers in this realm ,” it is made 
unlawful for any printer, bookseller, or bookbinder in London to keep more than 
three apprentices, and for the printers at Oxford and Cambridge more than a 
single apprentice at one time. Under these regulations, the Press seemed likely 
to become a very dutiful handmaid of the monarchy and priesthood ; but the 
result reflects little glory on the sagacity of those who devised them. 

* In 1591 it was made a pre-requisite to a schoolmaster’s license, that he 
should take the oath of supremacy and subscribe the Articles of Uniformity ; a 
measure “thought convenient,” says Strype, “to prevent the influence the 
Puritans might have on the minds of children.”—Life of Whitgift, p. 377. 

f When Udal, a nonconformist preacher, was, in 1590, tried for his life at 
the Court of Assize in Croydon, (having had a preliminary trial on the same 
charges before the Commission, and suffered a year’s imprisonment uncon¬ 
demned), no witnesses against him were brought into court, but the registrar 
merely swore to their examinations. When the prisoner, standing before his 
judges with his legs in irons, offered to produce witnesses in his defence, he was 
told that “ because the witnesses were against the Queen’s Majesty, they could 
not be heard !”—Neal, vol. i., p. 191. 


CHAPTER XXVII. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE CONTINUED. 

It was near the close of the year 1565, just as the plans of Arch¬ 
bishop Parker for the repression of dissent were fully matured, and he 
had fairly entered on the work to which the remaining ten years of his 
life were devoted, when John Bodleigh made his application to Cecil 
in behalf of the Genevan Version. 

With the events narrated in the preceding chapter before the mind, 
it is easy to see the relations of the course then adopted in reference 
to that version, to the general policy by which the Primate sought to 
secure universal conformity to the State Church. 

The Bible “ authorized to be read in churches,” was Cranmer’s 
Revision, the Great Bible, so-called, which had never been in high 
repute for its critical accuracy, and was now wholly eclipsed by the 
superior scholarship of the Genevan Version. The latter was the 
Bible of the Puritans. The associations of its birth were Presby¬ 
terian. It stood forth before the eyes of the nation as the symbol at 
once of Progress and of Dissent ; while it was, at the same time, the 
most efficient agent in awakening the popular mind to the claims of 
religion, and planting therein the principles of godliness and virtue. 
And thus it happened that just in proportion to the extent of its use¬ 
fulness was it dangerous to the peculiar interests of the Establish¬ 
ment. A Popish Bishop in the Primate’s place would have laid his 
hands at once on this source of schism ; neither hesitating to de¬ 
nounce it as unsafe for the ignorant and undiscriminating rabble, nor 
to dispose of it by the summary method of seizure and bonfires. 
This the spirit of Protestantism, a spirit created by the Bible itself, 
would no longer allow. Nor, indeed, have we any ground for suppos¬ 
ing that Archbishop Parker would have resorted to violence, though 
he had been fully sustained by public opinion. Nevertheless, it was 
essential to his plans that the Church, which claimed to be the exclu¬ 
sive spiritual authority in the realm, should also be the exclusive 
spiritual teacher. To her, and not to any rival influence, must the 
people look for the supply of their religious wants, and for every 
privilege which they enjoyed as a Christian nation. 

To the Protestant bishop two courses lay open for accomplishing 


222 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


this object ; the one, by drawing the Genevan Version within the con¬ 
secrated pale, and stamping it with episcopal patronage, to engraft on 
the popular favorite associations advantageous to the Church ; the 
other, to supersede it by a new version, emanating directly from the 
Church.* The first was attempted unsuccessfully. Mr. Bodleigh 
did not accede to their proposal of pledging himself never to bring 
out an edition without their “ advice, consent, and direction ; and 
as the consequence, for more than ten years longer, or till 1576, the 
Family Bible of England was never printed on English ground, and 
the first English impression immediately followed the death of Arch¬ 
bishop Parker, f Public sentiment ascribed this delay, which of 
course much impeded its circulation, to the jealousy of the bishops ; 
and it was thought a sore grievance that a version of the Bible which 
could be charged with no fault, should be thus arbitrarily kept from 
the multitudes who were hungering and thirsting for ics instructions. 
The second course, that of preparing a new version, was within the 
Primate’s own control ; and at the time of Mr. Bodleigh’s application 
measures were already in progress for this object. The result 
appeared in the year 1568, when the so-called Bishops’ Bible was 
given to the public. 

Strype, in his Life of Parker, thus speaks of the design, and of the 
method pursued in executing it : 

“ Among the noble designs of this Archbishop must be reckoned his resolution 
to have the Holy Bible set forth, well translated into the vulgar tongue, for pri¬ 
vate use, as well as for the use of churches ; and to perform that which his pre¬ 
decessor, Archbishop Cranmer, endeavored so much to bring to pass, but could 
not, (the bishops in his days being most of them utterly averse to any such 
thing) that is, that the bishops should join together, and take their parts and 
portions in revising, amending and setting forth, the English translation of those 
Holy books. This our present Archbishop’s thoughts much ran upon. And he 
had about this time (1565) distributed the Bible, divided into parts, to divers of his 
learned fellow-bishops, and to some other divines that were about him, who 

* This, probably, was the ultimate design in any case. The Genevan Bible 
might be made to answer a good purpose till the new version was ready to be 
“ set forth by authority,” after which it would be at their own choice to suppress 
it at once, or to withdraw it gradually from public view, as should seem most 
judicious. 

f Strype, in accounting for the failure of Bodleigh’s application, remarks 
somewhat naively : “ Whatever the cause were, it was not surely from any dis¬ 
couragement the translation received from the bishops. For they, by the fore- 
quoted letter, under their hands, like and approve it, and recommend the under¬ 
takers to the Secretary, to procure for them the Queen’s license to reprint it. 
Unless the reason were that they were loath to subscribe to the terms that were 
demanded by the bishops.”—Life of Parker, p. 207. 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE CONTINUED. 


223 


cheerfully undertook the work. . . . The Archbishop took upon him the 

labor to contrive and set the whole work agoing in a proper method, by sorting 
out the whole Bible into parcels, as was said, and distributing these parcels to 
the bishops and other learned men to peruse, and collate each, the book or 
books allotted them ; sending withal his instructions for the method they should 
observe ; and they to add some short marginal notes for the illustration or cor¬ 
rection of the text. And all these portions of the Bible being finished, and sent 
back to the Archbishop, he was to add the last hand to them, and so to take care 
for printing and publishing the whole.” 

Fifteen learned men, most of them bishops, were employed on this 
work. The precise time when it was commenced is not known ; but 
it could not have been later than 1564, as we find Sandys, Bishop of 
Worcester,- ready with his portion (Judges, Kings, and Chronicles) at 
the beginning of the next year. In a letter which accompanied it, he 
urges the prosecution of the revision in the most thorough manner ; 
“ that it may be done in such perfection that the adversaries can 
have no occasion to quarrel with it. Which thing,” he adds, “ will, 
require a time. Sed sat cito , si sat bene”—[but soon enough , if well 
enough\. In accordance with this sound advice, the work seems to 
have been performed with praiseworthy diligence ; though, from 
causes presently to be mentioned, not with very satisfactory results. 
It was published in 1568. 

Archbishop Parker’s Preface to the new Bible contains many sensi¬ 
ble and pious thoughts, and breathes a liberal Protestant spirit, 
widely in contrast with that displayed in his treatment of noncon¬ 
formists. The remembrance of that treatment, and of his previous 
indifference to the cry of the nation for a more abundant supply of 
the Scriptures, does indeed much qualify the pleasure with which we 
should otherwise read it. Had he felt Cranmer’s enthusiasm for the 
principles of the Reformation, and that its sheet-anchor was the Bible, 
his course would have been different. But it is too evident that 
episcopacy was still dearer to him than the Reformation, and that his 
reliance for its establishment was the sword of the magistrate rather 
than the word of God. And hence, while he was pursuing “ the pre¬ 
cise brethren" (his favorite designation of the dissenters) with deadly 
animosity, silencing faithful preachers, and imprisoning Christian peo¬ 
ple who sought spiritual nourishment elsewhere than from empty pul¬ 
pits, or those filled by incompetent, worldly, or vicious men, by his 
own confession “ very many churches wanted Bibles .” Nor can he be 
charged merely with neglect in this particular, when his influence was 
employed for the discouragement, against the earnest wishes of the 
people, of a version whose excellencies he could not deny. Yet with 


224 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


all these abatements, we cannot bjit rejoice over sentiments like the 
following, from the pen of the rigorous Primate ; for they indicate a 
public opinion in favor of the Bible, too deeply rooted and too full of 
life to be safely resisted or neglected by the highest in place and 
strongest in power. 

“ Antichrist must he be that, under whatsoever color, would give contrary 
precept or counsel to that which Christ did give us. Very little do they resemble 
Christ’s loving spirit, moving us to search for our comfort, that will discourage 
us from such searching, or that would wish ignorance or forgetfulness of his 
benefits to reign in us, so that they might, by our ignorance, reign the more 
frankly in our consciences, to the danger of our salvation. Who can take the 
light from us in this miserable vale of blindness, and not mean to have us stum¬ 
ble in the paths of perdition, to the ruin of our souls ? Who will envy us this 
bread of life, prepared and set on the table for our eternal sustenance, and mean 
not to famish us, or instead thereof, with their corrupt traditions and doctrines 
of men, to infect us ? . . . Search, therefore, good reader, (in God’s name), 

as Christ biddeth thee, the Holy Scriptures, wherein thou mayest find thy salvation. 
Let not the volume of this book, (by God’s own warrant), depart from thee ; but 
occupy thyself therein in the whole journey of this thy worldly pilgrimage, to 
understand thy way how to walk rightly before Him all the days of thy life.” 

In reference to the cavils of the Romanists, who decried every exist¬ 
ing translation into the mother tongue, yet never themselves put hand 
to the work of supplying one which was more correct, he makes the 
pertinent inquiry : 

“ What manner of translation may men think to look for at their hands, if they 
should translate the Scriptures to the comfort of God’s elect, which they never 
did, nor be not like to propose it, but be rather studious only to seek quarrels in 
other men’s well-doings, to pick fault where none is ; and where any is escaped 
through human negligence, then to cry out with their tragical exclamations, but 
in no wise to amend by the spirit of charity and lenity that which might be more 
aptly put ?” 

In apologizing for thus adding another translation to the many 
previously made, he quotes the words of Augustine, that “ though in 
the primitive Church the late interpreters which did translate the 
Scriptures be innumerable, yet wrought this rather a help than an im¬ 
pediment to the readers, if they be not too negligent. For saith he, 
divers translations have made, many times, the harder and darker 
sentences the more open and plain.” The Archbishop pleads, there¬ 
fore, that no one should take offence at this new attempt at transla¬ 
tion, inasmuch as it was neither intended to reflect on any other, or 
to claim perfection, “ as that hereafter might follow no other that 
might see that which as yet was not understanded. ” In these 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE CONTINUED. 


225 


remarks, the Archbishop probably had one eye on those who opposed 
all change in the authorized version as a dangerous innovation ; and 
the other on the Puritans, whose attachment to their favorite version 
was not wholly free from party prejudice, many of them being unable, 
as was said, “ to see the sense of Scripture, except through the Gene¬ 
van spectacles.” 

And vet, with these liberal sentiments on the face of his translation, 
the Archbishop’s first move after its completion was the attempt to 
obtain from the Queen an exclusive license for it as the one “to be 
only commended in public reading in churches, to draw to one uni¬ 
formity This favor he requests, “ not only as many churches want 
their books, but as that in certain places be publicly used some trans¬ 
lations which have not been labored in this realm.”* In other words, 
two grievances are to be redressed by her Majesty’s countenance of 
the new version ; the churches destitute of Bibles are to be supplied, and 
the churches supplied with the Genevan version are to exchange them for 
the one furnished and authorized by her Majesty and the bishops. 

The Bishops’ Bible was, in some respects, an advance on that of 
Cranmer. The omission of the additions from the Vulgate was a 
marked improvement ; and many single passages were changed for 
the better (some also for the worse) by the substitution of the Genevan 
renderings. But it contributed little that was new to the stock of bibli¬ 
cal knowledge. For this there were several causes. First and chiefly, 
the want of profound scholarship in the translators—learning being 
made subordinate to official position, in the selection of translators, 
by the object designed to be secured. The new Bible must be as 
good as bishops could make it ; but it must be a Bishop’s Bible. 
England did not lack for scholars. The same men whose ripe learn¬ 
ing had produced the Genevan version still lived in the prime and 
fullness of their powers, and there were other English scholars in all 
respects their equals. But it was the silent policy of the Church to 
recognize no merit in nonconformists ; and unfortunately the best 
talent and culture of the realm were thus buried from public use. 

Another cause of the inferiority of the version was the rule laid 
down by Archbishop Parker, of deviating as little as possible from 
the old authorized version ; a rule which must necessarily produce an 
imperfect work, whatever may be the ability of the scholars by whom 
it is executed. To this rule there was, indeed, one remarkable ex¬ 
ception. The uniform rendering of ecclesia by congregation formed 
one of the characteristic features of the earlier versions, and was ac- 

* Parker’s Letter to Cecil, quoted in Anderson’s Annals, vol. ii., p. 333. 


226 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


counted of primary importance, as representing to the English mind 
the generic idea of visible Christianity as a community of equals. T his 
was the point in Tyndale’s version against which Sir Thomas More 
directed his most powerful batteries. Coverdale, though allowing a 
false liberality to give a Popish tinge to his version in some other 
respects, never deviated in this from the Protestant principle. Cran- 
mer, though his zeal for the Anglican Church was not scrupulous in 
its choice of means, maintained this feature of the English Bible in 
unimpaired integrity. In the “ authorized version, as left by him 
and found by Archbishop Parker, ecclesia is rendered, in every in¬ 
stance without exception, “ congregation.” * It was therefore a very 
bold step, when the latter took the responsibility of a total change in 
this particular, by uniformly displacing “ congregation,” and putting 
“ church” in its stead, f The controversy was no new one to him. 
He has himself recorded that this was one of the matters in debate 
when the Synod of Bishops, under Henry VIII., took into considera¬ 
tion the subject of a new translation. “ There was then,” says he, J 
“ a discussion [in the Synod] about the significance and force of cer¬ 
tain words ; as whether Dominus should be rendered from the sacred 
writings in English ‘ the Lord ’ or ‘ our Lord ’ ; and whether ecclesia 
should be translated ‘ the congregation ’ or ‘ the church ’ ; also, 
whether caritas should be expressed by ‘charity’ or ‘love.’ ” He 
knew well which was the Protestant and which the Romish ground in 
this debate. His choice of the latter needs no explanation, except 
that furnished by the character of the rejected word, as indicating the 
original democratic constitution of the Christian body. The time had 
now come when Sir Thomas More’s idea of The Church was to be 
realized in Protestant England ; and the Primate saw, with Sir 
Thomas, that this could not be done so long as the true idea still lay 
on the face of the vernacular Bible. In this, King James’ Revision 
followed that of the bishops ; and thus the word for which Tyndale 
had so earnestly contended, the word which had stood on the sacred 

* The word “ church ” occurs but once in Cranmer’s Bible, and then as the 
translation of the Greek word for a temple or sacred edifice. 

f With a remarkable exception in Matt, xvi., 18. There, the rendering of 
Cranmer’s Bible was suffered to remain unchanged—“ And I say also unto thee 
that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my congregation . ” The 
troublesome use of this passage by the rival Church of Rome sufficiently explains 
this silent deviation from uniformity. The only other instance is Hebrews 
xii., 23—“ And unto the congregation of the first bom , which are written in 
heaven .’ The constitution of the Church militant was the object of the Primate’s 
solicitude—not that of the Church triumphant. 

% De Antiq. Britan. Eccle. p. 505 ; (Harvard Library). 


THE BISHOPS’ BIBLE CONTINUED. 


22 7 


page as an incorruptible witness against priestly usurpation, was 
thenceforward blotted from the English Scriptures. In this feature of 
the Bishop’s Bible we find a motive for the undertaking, not less 
strong than the opposition felt to the general influence of the Genevan 
version.* We can now understand how this Bible, if established by 
authority as the only one to be publicly read in churches, might play 
an important part “ in drawing to one uniformity.” 

It was but natural that Archbishop Parker should wish to secure to 
the English Church (to use the term in the Primate’s sense) the ad¬ 
vantage of furnishing the Bible both for public worship and for the 
private use of the people. Had he sought this object with a liberality 
suited to his vast income, and in a manner worthy of so difficult and 
so sacred a work ; employing the best scholars, furnishing them with 
the needed apparatus, and requiring from them nothing but a faithful 
rendering of the inspired original ; the good and wise of every age, 
and of every division of the Christian body, would have honored him 
as one of the world’s benefactors. The savor of episcopal associa¬ 
tions thus transferred to the English Bible, would have been fairly 
earned. But no man, no Church, has the right, for any purpose, to 
make God’s word speak differently from itself ; f or to obscure its 
meaning even in the smallest particular, to the common eye. As the 
first English version undertaken for a less generous object than the 
extension of truth, and executed on the-principle of making as little 
advance as the requirements of the age would permit, it must be re¬ 
garded by the true Protestant rather with regret than satisfaction. 

In 1572 a revised edition of the Bishops’ Bible was published, to 
which Lawrence, a Greek scholar celebrated for his critical accuracy, 
contributed a number of emendations. J In 1584, under Archbishop 
Whitgift, the readings from the Vulgate, omitted by the first revisers, 
but which had been retained unmarked in the Book of Common 
Prayer, were replaced in the Bishops’ Bible. It was important to 

* The Genevan version used the words “ church ” and “ congregation” inter¬ 
changeably, and with about equal frequency. This variation from the practice 
of the previous versions had perhaps some connection with the State-church ele¬ 
ment of the Presbyterianism of that time ; but it at least respected the rights of 
the English reader, by giving, with the ecclesiastical term, the English term which 
clearly defined and explained it. 

f A singular example of this is furnished by the suggestion of Guest, bishop 
of Rochester : viz., of conforming those passages in the Psalms, quoted in the 
New Testament from the Septuagint, to the readings there found—” for the 
avoiding,” as he writes to Parker, “ of the offence that may rise to people upon 
divers translations.”—Strype’s Life of Parker, p. 208. 

f A list of these is given by Strype in the Appendix to the Life of Parker. 


228 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


the Church that her Bible and her Liturgy should show no disagree¬ 
ment ; and since the latter could not be altered without the concur¬ 
rence of the Queen and Parliament, the old readings were quietly 
slipped back into the Bible ; and, in order to complete the uni¬ 
formity, they were left unmarked as in the Prayer Book. Seventeen 
of these interpolations occur in the Book of Psalms, one of them (in 
Ps. xiv.) including three entire verses. This is the most remarkable 
instance of deliberate imposition found in the history of Protestant 
Bible Translation. 

This version passed through twenty-nine editions, most of them 
folios and quartos for public religious service, during the reign of 
Elizabeth ; and it continued to hold its place in King James’ reign, 
while his revision was in preparation. A few small-sized editions 
were printed for use in families ; but it never became a popular favor¬ 
ite. The last edition appeared in 1608 ; and three years after, it was 
superseded, as the Bible of Churches, by the Common Version. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 


THE RHEMISH, OR DOUAY BIBLE. 

The year 1582 witnessed a phenomenon in the history of English 
Bible translation ; viz., a version of the New Testament emanating 
from the Romish Church. This was not, however, the result of any 
change of principle in that venerable institution in regard to vernacu¬ 
lar translation and the use of the Bible among the laity ; but merely 
a change of policy suited to the exigencies of the time. The work 
was executed by several English Catholics, all of whom had once been 
connected with the University of Oxford, but who, on Elizabeth’s 
accession, had fled to the continent and found refuge in the Romish 
seminaries of Douay and Rheims. In their preface they explicitly 
declare : 

“ That they do not publish it upon an erroneous opinion of its being necessary 
that the Holy Scriptures should always be in our mother-tongue, or that they 
ought to be read indifferently of all, or could be easily understood of every one 
that reads or hears them in a known language ; or that they generally or abso¬ 
lutely judged it more convenient in itself or more agreeable to God’s word and 
honor, or the edification of the faithful, to have them turned into vulgar tongues, 
than to be kept and studied only in the ecclesiastical languages. But they trans¬ 
lated this sacred book upon special consideration of the present time, state and 
condition of their country, unto which divers things were either necessary or 
profitable and medicinable now, that otherwise, in the peace of the Church, were 
neither much requisite, nor perchance, wholly tolerable.” 


With regretful fondness, they look back to the happy days of the 
primitive Church, when, as they maintain, “ it was not permitted even 
to those who understood the learned languages wherein the Scriptures 
were written, to read, reason, dispute, turn and toss the Scriptures ; 
nor might every schoolmaster that had a little Greek and Latin 
straight take in hand the Holy Testament ; nor were the translated 
Bibles put into the hands of every husbandman, artificer, prentice, 
boys, girls, mistress, maid and man.” In those good times, the Bible 
was kept “ in libraries, monasteries, colleges, churches, in bishops’, 
priests’, and some other devout principal laymen’s houses and hands ; 
and the poor ploughmen, while tilling the ground, could sing the 
hymns and psalms either in known or unknown tongues, as they heard 


230 


ENGLISH BIBLE, TRANSLATION. 


them in holy church, though they could neither read, nor knew the 
sense, meaning and mysteries of the same.” 

It cannot be claimed that the Rhemish and Douay translators rep¬ 
resent, in this respect, merely the “ obscurantists” of the Romish 
Church. The most distinguished members of her communion, illus¬ 
trious by their own scholarship and by their zealous promotion of 
learning among the clergy, have spoken the same language in every 
age. We have already remarked this in regard to Cardinal Wolsey 
and Sir Thomas More. An equally striking instance is furnished by 
the policy of Cardinal Ximenes, after the conquest and “ conversion” 
of Granada. Talavera, the benevolent bishop of the subjugated 
province, had much at heart the completion of a translation of the 
Scriptures into the vulgar Arabic for circulation among the Moorish 
converts. This purpose was sternly overruled by his superior. “ It 
would be throwing pearls before swine,” said Ximenes in reply to 
Talavera’s arguments, “ to open the Scriptures to persons in their 
low state of ignorance, who could not fail, as St. Paul says, to wrest 
them to their own destruction. The word of God should be wrapped 
in discreet mystery from the vulgar, who feel little reverence for what 
is plain and obvious. It was for this reason that our Saviour himself 
clothed his doctrines in parables, when he addressed the people. The 
Scriptures should be confined to the three ancient languages, which 
God, with mystic import, permitted to be inscribed over the head of 
his crucified Son ; and the vernacular should be reserved for such de¬ 
votional and moral treatises as holy men indite, in order to quicken the 
soul and turn it from the pursuit of worldly vanities to heavenly con¬ 
templation.”* 

And this was the man who founded and endowed the University of 
Alcala, for the education of the Spanish clergy ; who projected that 
splendid monument of sacred learning, the Complutensian Polyglott, 
and defrayed the enormous expenses of the undertaking out of his 
own income ! The aim in these and similar labors in the Romish 
Church was to increase and consolidate the power of the priesthood 
by raising it to an unapproachable height above the laity. 

In what then consisted the necessity for so striking a deviation from 
the immemorial policy of the Church, as the publication of the New 
Testament for general distribution in the vulgar tongue? This the 
translators explain with equal frankness. It was the spreading poison 
of Protestant versions ; wherein, as they affirm, God’s law and 
testament and Christ’s written will and word are corrupted both in let- 

* Prescott’s History of Ferdinand and Isabella, ch. vi. t last p. Note ; and 
Hefele, Der Cardinal Ximenes, S. 63. 


THE RHEMISH, OR DOUAY BIBLE. 


231 

ter and sense, in order to make them agree with the false doctrines of 
their new religion. They say ; 

In pure compassion, therefore, to see their beloved countrymen with ex¬ 
treme danger of their souls, to use only such profane translations and erroneous 
men s mere fancies, and being also much moved thereto by the desires of many 
devout persons, they had set forth the New Testament trusting that it might give 
occasion to them, after diligently perusing it, to lay away at least such their im¬ 
pure versions as hitherto they had been forced to use. . . . They had also 

set forth reasonable large annotations, thereby to shew the studious reader, in 
most places pertaining to the controversies of the time, both the heretical corrup¬ 
tions and false deductions, and also the apostolic tradition, the expositions of the 
holy fathers, the decrees of the Catholic Church and most ancient councils.” 

Thirty years after, 1609-ro the version was completed by the pub¬ 
lication at Douay of the Old Testament, which had all this time been 
delayed by the want of the necessary pecuniary means—no very flat¬ 
tering index of the zeal of the infallible Church for the diffusion of the 
Scriptures. 

The principles observed in the preparation of their work were 
worthy of the motives from which it was undertaken. It was made 
from the Latin Vulgate, in preference to the Greek and Hebrew Scrip¬ 
tures. “The Latin,” they said, “was most ancient; it was cor¬ 
rected by St. Jerome, commended by St. Augustine, and used and 
expounded by the Fathers ; the holy council of Trent had declared it 
to be authentical ; it was the gravest, sincerest, of greatest majesty, 
and the least partiality ; and in regard to the New Testament, was 
exact and precise according to the Greek ; preferred by Beza himself 
to all other translations, and was truer than the vulgar Greek text 
itself.” This last claim, which might have been made with more rea¬ 
son in reference to the original text of the Vulgate (whose date 
was much older than the Greek manuscripts then in the possession 
of Protestant scholars), was made for modern copies of it, which 
embodied the mistakes and corruptions of its successive transcribers 
through more than a thousand years. Many attempts had been made for 
its restoration, but with confessedly little success. Such was the text to 
which the Rhemish and Douay translators appealed as the infallible 
representative of the inspired word. 

Another characteristic feature of the work was the transfer of a 
multitude of words and phrases, untranslated, which by long usage 
had acquired a specific application to the doctrines, ceremonies, and 
discipline of the Romish Church. These, in their own words, “ they 
kept exactly, as catholic terms.” Many others also were retained, 
apparently for the purpose of throwing an air of mystery over the 


232 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Scriptures, as too profound and sacred to be understood by the com¬ 
mon reader. 

No more convincing evidence could be asked of the triumph of the 
great principle of Protestantism in England than the version thus 
forced from the reluctant hand of the Romish Church. It was not till 
an overwhelming public opinion demanded the free use of the Scriptures 
as the right of every individual, without respect to class or condition ; 
not till the sacred word was, as these translators conceded, in every 
man’s hands in England, did she step forward, and with this version 
seek to tempt them from the more perfect Protestant translations. 

The subsequent history of the Douay Bible is in full keeping with 
its origin. Were even so imperfect a version freely circulated among 
the Catholic masses speaking the English tongue, there would soon be 
witnessed among them the evidences of a new intellectual and reli¬ 
gious life. But its office has ever been, and so continues in the pre¬ 
sent day, to stand as a barrier between them and the dreaded Protes¬ 
tant versions ; while between them and itself is interposed the general 
influence of the priesthood, and the secret inquisition of the confes¬ 
sional. 


CHAPTER XXIX. 


THE COMMON VERSION. 

The four or five years preceding the death of Elizabeth had wit¬ 
nessed a partial lull in the great contest between the Establishment 
and the Puritans. This was the effect of several causes, none of 
which however, contained the presage of permanent peace. The 
Queen, now yielding to the infirmities of age, could no longer main¬ 
tain her prerogative over Church and State with the spirit and 
efficiency of former days. Archbishop Whitgift also, who had pro¬ 
claimed “ war to the knife” with nonconformists, on his elevation to 
the Primacy in 1583 and whose administration made that of Parker 
seem moderate and humane, was beginning to feel the weight of 
years. Meanwhile, the unwise and illegal severity of their measures 
had produced a corresponding reaction in public sentiment, which 
now affected all classes of society. It was no longer mere popular 
sympathy with the persecuted. The most thoughtful and far-sighted 
statesmen beheld with alarm the encroachments of a priesthood who, 
through their vast, undefined, ecclesiastical powers, and their coalition 
with the Star Chamber, had almost monopolized the administration of 
justice, and left to British subjects little more of liberty than the name. 
The courts of common law, provoked to resistance by long aggres¬ 
sions on their jurisdiction, now learned to check the action of the epis¬ 
copal courts and of the High Commission by writs of prohibition, 
which could only be set aside by a tedious legal process, sometimes 
protracted through several years. This invasion of their prescriptive 
rights was hotly resented by the bishops ; but in spite of their best 
endeavors, “ the evil,” says Strype, “ increased more and more.”* 
Thus, in various ways, was the hierarchy crippled for the time, and 
disabled from that unrestrained use of its weapons to which it had 
been so long accustomed. 

But that which contributed most of all to this state of comparative 
quiet, was the near prospect of a Puritan sovereign on the throne of 
England. James VI. of Scotland, Elizabeth’s expected heir, had 
been educated a Presbyterian. He had publicly subscribed with his 
own hand the Solemn League and Covenant,! and on several occa- 


* Life of Whitgift, Book IV. ch. xxvi. 


f Neal, Part I. ch. viii. 


2 34 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


sions had reaffirmed his attachment to its principles. A marked in¬ 
stance of the kind had been witnessed in the General Assembly at 
Edinburgh, in T590 ;* “ when, standing with his bonnet off and his 
hands lifted up to heaven, ‘ he praised God that he was born in the 
time of the light of the Gospel, and in such a place as to be king of 
such a Church, the sincerest [purest] kirk in the world. The Church 
of Geneva,’ said he, ‘ keep Pasche and Yule ; what have they for them ? 
They have no institution. As for our neighbor kirk of England, 
their service is an evil-said Mass in English ; they want nothing of the 
Mass but the liftings. I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, 
elders, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand by your purity, and 
to exhort the people to do the same ; and I, forsooth, as long as I 
brook my life, shall maintain the same.’ ” 

While therefore the Puritans, secure, as they supposed, of a speedy 
change in the government which would make them the administration 
party, were content silently to “ bide their time,” the bishops, dread¬ 
ing the reckoning which was to come, were quite willing to abstain 
from acts which might make a case, now sufficiently bad, quite irre¬ 
trievable. “For indeed,” says Strype, ‘‘he [the Archbishop] and 
some of the bishops, particularly the Bishop of London,f feared much 
that when this king came to reign in this realm, he would favor the 
New Discipline, and make alterations in the ecclesiastical government 
and liturgy. £ The hopes of the one party and the fears of the other, 
both of which seemed so justly founded, were destined to a signal dis¬ 
appointment. 

In 1603, the long career of the great Queen was closed by death, 
and the Scotch King succeeded to the English throne, under the title 
of James I. All eyes were now turned to the new monarch ; and his 
first movements were awaited by both parties with breathless interest 
Messengers were promptly dispatched by both into Scotland to offer 
their congratulations and assurances of loyalty, and to bespeak the 
royal favor to their respective interests. His reply to the Bishops, 


* Neal, Part II. ch. i. 

Wh ° had bee " raiSed ’ in I597 ’ by the stre "“°us efforts of 
W lmg.ft, to the bishopric of London, owed the favor of that prelate to his long 
and active opposition to the Puritans. For many years previous he had been 
e Primate s right hand man in all measures for the suppression of that obnox¬ 
ious party, and even surpassed him in the violence and cruelty of his proceed¬ 
ings. Since h,s elevation to the see of London, Whitgift's increasing age had 

™"° n t Ban H C ™ ft ‘ h \ aC T dUtieS 0f the Primacy ’ Placed him foremost in 
e conflict. He had, therefore, more than any other man, reason to dread the 
expected new order of things. 

\ Life of Whitgift, p. 560. 


THE COMMON VERSION. 


235 

that he would uphold the government of the late Queen as she left it, 
somewhat revived their courage. But he was also gracious to the 
agents of the Puritans. And thus, while he refrained from commit¬ 
ting himself to any definite policy, each party was flattered with the 
idea of standing highest in his favor. Unsuspected by both, James 
had an object in view to which the settlement of the quarrel between 
the 1 relates and the Puritans, in itself considered, was to him a mere 
trifle. Provided only his Prerogative were secured by the decision, he 
cared not which triumphed ; and to form a judgment on this point 
required time for personal observation. During several months suc¬ 
ceeding his accession, he was engaged in a royal progress through his 
new dominions ; and though apparently absorbed in amusement, he 
diligently used the opportunity for watching the character and tenden¬ 
cies of the rival parties. Meanwhile, the war of opinion had broken 
out with renewed violence ; and the measures and publications, pro¬ 
ceeding from both sides, developed still more palpably their charac¬ 
teristic views and aims. 

James was at length ready to take a definitive position. On the 
24th of October, a proclamation, issued under the royal seal, ap¬ 
pointed a meeting of leading Churchmen and Puritans for discussing 
the ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom. Thus originated the cele¬ 
brated Hampton Court Conference. 

The terms of the proclamation left no room to doubt of his Maj¬ 
esty’s decision to support the Established Church ; while the insulting 
arrogance of his tone toward the Puritans, his prohibition to them of 
all freedom of speech or of the press, and even of the right to join 
together in petitioning their sovereign on points of vital interest, 
taught them what treatment to expect in the appointed interview. 
The arrangements for the meeting corresponded to the style of the 
proclamation. Sixteen dignitaries of the Church, of whom nine 
were bishops, were designated to represent the prelatical party ; while 
only four Puritan ministers, and those selected by the King, were 
allowed to appear on the other side. 

On Saturday, the 14th of January, 1604, the Conference held its 
first session. To this the Puritan ministers were not admitted. In 
Dr. Barlow’s account of the Conference, drawn up by order of the 
Archbishop,* the occurrences of the first morning are stated as fol- 

* “ The sum and substance of the Conference which it pleased his excellent 
Majesty to have with the Lords Bishops and other of his clergy (whereat the 
most of the Lords of the council were present) in his Majesty’s Privy Chamber 
at Hampton Court, Jan. 14th, 1603 [4]. Contracted by William Barlow, Doctor 
of Divinity, and Dean of Chester;” 301 pp. small octavo. It is of this document 


236 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


lows. “ All the deans and doctors attending my Lords the Bishops 
into the presence chamber, there we found sitting upon a form, Dr. 
Reynolds, Dr. Sparkes, Mr. Knewstubbs, and Mr. Chaderton, agents 
for the Millene Plaintiffs.* The bishops entering the Privy Cham¬ 
ber, stayed there till commandment came from his Majesty that none 
of any sort should be present but only the Lords of the Privy Coun¬ 
cil, and the bishops with five deans [naming them], who being called 
in, the door was close shut by my Lord Chamberlain.” 

The indignity thus put upon the reform party was followed by a 
meeting of the King and the bishops, in which they came to a perfect 
mutual understanding. It was opened by the King in an oration an 
hour long, whose key note was the sentiment expressed in the first 
sentence, that ” Religion is the soul of a kingdom, and Unity the life 
of religion.” It contained very severe reflections on that portion of 
the clergy who, by opposing conformity to the established doctrine 
and discipline, had bred dissensions now amounting almost to a 
schism, “ a point,” says the royal orator, “ most perilous to the com¬ 
mon weal as to the Church. ” They then proceeded to a consideration 
of the complaints against the Book of Common Prayer, as well as of 
alleged abuses in the administration of the service and discipline of 
the Church ; which ended in an order from the King for a few verbal 
alterations in the titles of certain portions of the Prayer Book, ” not,” 
as he remarked, “ in the body of the sense, and by way rather oi 
some explanation than of any alteration at all. *’f His Majesty did 

that Strype says in his Life of Whitgift, p. 571 : “ But that the very truth might 
appear [of the occurrences in the Hampton Court Conference], there was an 
authentic relation of it, written by one of the divines there present, viz., Barlow, 
Dean of Chester ; and that by the Archbishop’s own order, imposing this work 
upon him. Which then we may conclude to have been carefully revised by him¬ 
self. And that it might be more exact and complete, it was compared and en¬ 
larged by the writer (before it was published), with the Notes and copies of the 
Bishop of London, the Deans of Christ’s Church, Winchester and Windsor, and 
the Archdeacon of Nottingham.” 

The quotations from this tract, which has now become rare, have been made for 
the present work from the copy in the Harvard University Library. It has been 
accused of unfairness in representing the conduct of the Puritan divines at the 
Conference ; its source leaves no room to suspect that James and the prelates are 
not presented in the most favorable light. 

* In allusion to the so-called Millenary petition, signed by 750 Puritan minis¬ 
ters, and presented to the King soon after his Arrival in England, praying for a 
reformation in the Church. 

f Strype’s Life of Whitgift, Appendix No. XLV : Letlei from the Bishop of 
Durham to the Archbishop of York, giving an account 6 f the Hampton Court Con¬ 
ference . 


THE COMMON VERSION. 


237 

not allow the session to close without assuring the bishops that 
howsoever he lived among Puritans, and was kept for the most part 
. as a ward under them i yet, since he was of the age of his son, ten 
years old, he ever disliked their opinions. As the Saviour of the 
world said, ‘ Though he lived among them, he was not of them.’ ”* 
On Monday, the second day of the Conference, the Puritan minis¬ 
ters were called into the council chamber (the Bishops of London 
and Winchester being there already), and after them all the deans 
and doctors present which had been summoned. On this occasion, 
in the words of the Bishop of Durham,! his highness used more short 
and round speech. ’ For five hours these learned and virtuous men 
(one of them, Dr. Reynolds, a distinguished Professor in the Uni¬ 
versity of Oxford), were obliged to submit to a brow-beating from the 
king and prelates, which reflects deep disgrace on the cause that 
could need or use such weapons. 

Mr. Knewstubbs having taken exceptions to the cross in baptism, 
on account of the offence to weak brethren, the King replied :J 
“How long will such brethren be weak? Are not forty-five years 
sufficient for them to grow strong in ? Besides, who pretends this 
weakness ? We require not subscription of laics and idiots, but of 
preachers and ministers, who are not still, I trow, to be fed with 
milk, being enabled to feed ethers. Some of them are strong enough, 
if not headstrong ; conceiving themselves able to teach who last spake 
for them, and all the bishops in the land.” 

To the further inquiry of Mr. Knewstubbs, whether the Church 
were competent thus to add to the ordinance of Christ, and how far 
her authority is binding in such cases, his Majesty answered with 
great warmth : “I will not argue that point with you, but answer as 
kings in parliament, Le rois' avisera. This is like Mr. John Black, a 
beardless boy, who told me the last Conference in Scotland that he 
would hold conformity with his Majesty in matters of doctrine, but 
every man for ceremonies was to be left to his own liberty. But I 
will have none of that. I will have one doctrine and one discipline, 
one religion in substance and in ceremony. And, therefore, I charge 
you never speak more to that point, how much you are bound to 
obey, when the Church hath ordained it. ”§ 

Dr. Reynolds objected to the apocryphal books, instancing, among 
other errors, Ecclesiasticus xlviii., 10. On this his Majesty said, || “ with 
a pleasant apostrophe to the Lords : What, trow ye, makes these men 

* Barlow’s account of the first session of the Conference, closing paragraph. 

f Letter, &c., as just quoted. % Fuller, Ch. Hist. vol. iii., p. 186. 

§ Barlow, p. 70 . II Barlow, p. 62. 


238 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


so angry with Ecclesiasticus 2 By my soul I think he was a bishop, or 
else they would never use him so !” 

Upon a proposition by Dr. Reynolds that the inferior country 
clergy might be permitted to meet together at stated times for the dis¬ 
cussion of theological subjects,* James broke forth : “If you aim at a 
Scottish Presbytery, it agreeth as well with monarchy as God and the 
devil. Then Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick, shall meet and 
censure me and my council. Therefore, I say again, Le rot s' avi~ 
sera . Stay, 1 pray you, one seven years, and then if you find me 
grow pursy and fat, I may perchance hearken unto you ; for that gov¬ 
ernment will keep me in breath and give me work enough.’’ He then 
put the question to Dr. Reynolds, whether he knew of any “ who liked 
the present government ecclesiastical and disliked his supremacy ? On his 
answering that he knew of none such, the King proceeded to relate 
his own and his mother’s experience with the Scotch reformers, who 
cried up the supremacy of the monarch till the Popish bishops were 
put down, and then, “being illuminated with more light,’’ as they 
professed, took in hand the supremacy also, f Then touching his hat 
to the bishops, he added :j “ My Lords the Bishops, I may thank 
you that these men do thus plead for my supremacy. They think 
they cannot make their party good against you but by appealing unto 
it, as if you, or some that adhere unto you, were not well affected 
toward it. But if once you were out and they in place, I know what 
would become of my supremacy. No Bishop, no King, as I before 
said. Neither do I thus speak at random, without ground ; for I 
have observed since my coming into England that some preachers be¬ 
fore me can be content to pray for James, King of England, Scot¬ 
land, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith ; but as for Supreme 
Governor in all cases and over all persons (as well ecclesiastical as 
civil), they pass that over with silence ; and what cut they have been 
of I after learned.’’ Then having asked if they had anything more to 
say, and being answered in the negative, the King rose from his 

* Similar exercises under the name of prophesyings had been established by 
Grindal when Bishop of London, with a view to promote among the clergy of 
his diocese the spirit of preaching, which had almost died out in the Church. 
They were peremptorily suppressed by Elizabeth as savoring too much of the 
New Discipline, and Grindal’s revival of them, as Archbishop, cost him the for¬ 
feiture of the royal favor, suspension from his office and banishment from Court, 
which harsh treatment broke the old man’s heart. Freedom of thought was dis¬ 
couraged, no less among the inferior clergy than among the laity.—-See Strype’s 
Life of Archb. Grindal, Append. No. X. “ The Queen to the Bishops throughout 
Englandfor the suppression of the exercise called Prophesying , &-Y.” 

t FuIler > vol. iii., p. iSS. $ Barlow, p. 82. 


THE COMMON VERSION. 


239 


chair, saying as he passed to his inner chamber :* “If this be all 
they have to say, I will make them conform themselves, or I will 
harry them out of the land, or else do worse.” 

On the third and last day of the Conference, Wednesday, January 
18, the Archbishop and other church dignitaries were present, 
together with many knights, civilians and doctors of the law But 
the Puritan ministers were not admitted to any share in the discus¬ 
sion, being merely called in at the close of the meeting, to hear what 
had been decided. At this session the abuses of the High Commis¬ 
sion were the chief subject of consideration. One of the Lords 
present affirmed that the proceedings in that court were like the Span¬ 
ish Inquisition ; where men are urged to subscribe more than the law 
requireth ; and by the oath ex officio, forced to accuse themselves, 
being examined upon twenty or twenty-four articles on a sudden 
without deliberation, and for the most part against themselves.” But 
the King defended the practice in a long speech, so entirely satisfac¬ 
tory to the prelates that the Archbishop of Canterbury, in a rapture 
of admiration exclaimed : ‘ Undoubtedly your Majesty speaks by the 
special assistance of God’s spirit !” To this Bancroft, the Bishop of 
London, added, kneeling : I protest, my heart melteth with joy that 
Almighty God, of his singular mercy, hath given us such a King as 
since Christ’s time, the like has not been !”f 

This question and others proposed to the Conference having been 
settled, the four Puritan preachers were called in to hear the trifling 
alterations proposed to be made in the Liturgy. They ventured to 
beg for some little leniency and forbearance toward certain godly 
ministers in Lancashire, whose conscience did not allow them to con¬ 
form in all particulars to the Church. To this application the King 
at first answered that it was not his intention, and he presumed it was 
not the bishops’, presently and out of hand to enforce these things 
without fatherly admonitions, conferences, and persuasions” ; that 
he wished there might be inquiry made whether these ministers had 
converted any from popery, and were, withal, of blameless characters ; 
and if so, that the Lord Archbishop would write letters directing 
some favor to be shown them.” But Bancroft promptly interposed 
with the suggestion that if such letters were granted, copies of them 
would fly all over England ; and then all nonconformists would beg 
for the same indulgence, and so no fruit would follow from the Con¬ 
ference, but things be worse than before. He desired, therefore, that 
a time might be limited within which they should be required to con- 


* Barlow, p. 83. 


f Fuller, Ch. Hist., vol. iii., p. 190. 


240 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


form. To this his Majesty assented, and suggested that each bishop 
should see that it was done within his own diocese. At this point 
Mr. Knewstubbs, falling on his knees, prayed for the like forbearance 
to some honest ministers in Suffolk. But the King had now got his 
cue, and interrupting the Archbishop who was about to speak, he 
proceeded : Let me alone to answer him. Sir, you show yourself an 

uncharitable man. We have here taken pains, and in the end, have 
concluded on unity and uniformity ; and you, forsooth, must prefer 
the credit of a few private men before the peace of the Church. 
This is just the Scotch argument when anything was concluded which 
disliked some humors. Let them conform themselves shortly, or they 
shall hear of it.”* 

After a few more words the King, rising, dismissed the Conference. 
As he was leaving the council chamber the Bishop of London fol¬ 
lowed him with the benediction : “ God’s goodness be blessed for your 
Majesty, and give health and prosperity to your Highness, your gra¬ 
cious Queen, the young Prince, and all the royal issue !” 

Thus closed the Conference of Hampton Court. On the day fol¬ 
lowing, the royal Moderator thus described it in a letter to a confi¬ 
dential friend in Scotland, whom he addresses as “ My honest 
Blake!”f 

“ We have kept such a revel with the Puritans here these two days as was 
never heard the like ; where I have peppered them as soundly as ye have done 
the papists there. It were no reason that those that will refuse the airy sign of 
the cross after baptism, should have their purses stuffed with any more solid and 
substantial crosses.:): They fled me so from argument to argument, without ever 
answering me directly, tit est eorum moris t as I was forced at last to say unto 
them : That if any of them had been in a college disputing with their scholars, 
if any of their disciples had answered them in that sort, they would have fetched 
him up, in place of a reply ; and so should the rod—[here the royal pleasantry 
descends below ‘ the dignity of history. ’] I have such a book of theirs as may 
well convert infidels ; but it shall never convert me, except by turning me more 
earnestly against them. 

And thus, praying you to commend me to the honest Chamberlain, I bid you 
heartily farewell. James R.” 

There can now be no room for doubt respecting the prime object 
and the animus of this memorable convention. The establishment of 
Episcopacy as the form of Church government most favorable to 

* Fuller, vol. iii., p. 192. 

f The whole letter, a curious if not very dignified specimen of royal literature, 
is contained in Strype’s Life of Archbishop Whitgift, Appendix, No. XLVI. 

X Coins stamped with the sign of the cross. 


THE COMMON VERSION. 


24I 


royal supremacy, and the extinction of Puritanism, as tending in the 
opposite direction, are written legibly in all its proceedings. 

How then is the fact to be explained that in regard to one point of 
vital interest the wishes of the Puritan ministers received the prompt 
concurrence of the King, and that manifestly against the wishes of 
their opponents ; and that the realization of the measure thus inau- 
spiciously commended to his notice became one of the chief objects of 
his royal care for several succeeding years, and the leading historical 
event of his reign ? This was the subject brought forward by Dr. 
Reynolds, at the second session of the Conference, of a new trans¬ 
lation of the Scriptures. A careful attention to the circum¬ 
stances of the case easily solves the problem. 

This scene in the Conference is thus described by Barlow :* 

“ After that, he (Dr. Reynolds,) moved his Majesty that there might be a new 
translation of the Bible ; because those which were allowed in the reigns of 
Henry the Eighth and Edward the Sixth were corrupt and not answerable to the 
original. To which motion there was at the present no gainsaying, the objec¬ 
tions! being trivial and old and already in print, oflen answered ; only my Lord 
of London well added, that if every man’s humor should be followed, there would 
be no end of translating. Whereupon his Highness wished that some special 
pains should be taken in that behalf, for one uniform translation, (professing that 
he had never yet seen a good translation into English, but the worst of all he 
thought the Genevan to be), and this to be done by the best learned in both 
Universities ; after them to be reviewed by the bishops and the chief learned of 
the Church ; from them to be presented to the Privy Council ; and lastly to be 
ratified by his royal authority ; and so this whole Church to be bound unto it 
and no other. Marry, withal, he gave this caveat (upon a word cast out by my 
Lord of London), that no marginal notes should be added, having found in those 
annexed to the Genevan translation (which he saw in a Bible given him by an 
English lady), some notes very partial, untrue, seditions, and savoring too much 
of dangerous and traitorous conceits. As when from Exodus i., 19, disobedience 
to Kings is allowed in a marginal note ; and 2 Chron. xv., 16, King Asa is 
taxed in the note for only deposing his mother and not killing her. And so con¬ 
cluded this point, as all the rest, with a grave and judicious advice—First, that 
errors in matters of faith might be rectified and amended ; Secondly, that matters 
indifferent might rather be interpreted and a gloss added ; alleging from Bartolus 
de regno that, as better a King with some weakness than still a change, so rather 
a Church with some faults than an innovation. 

It cannot escape the reader of this account that Bancroft’s insolent 

* Sum and Substance of the Conference, &c., p. 45. Comp. Fuller, Ch. Hist. 
Vol. iii., p. 182. 

f Namely, to these versions, of the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. Dr. 
R. of course referred £0 a version for public use in the Churches. The one still 
in use was Cranmer’s “ authorized version,” in the unsatisfactory revision of it 
by the bishops. 



242 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


remark, thrust in with characteristic forwardness before the King had 
spoken, was a decided mistake. His Majesty’s answer is based on a 
view quite different from that which had governed the policy of the 
Primate and his Lieutenant, the last twenty years ; while the sketch it 
contains of a specific plan for the execution of the proposed work 
looks much like the result of deliberate consideration and a previously 
settled purpose. The probability that such may have been the case 
will appear from a few facts. 

The subject of an improved translation of the Scriptures was by no 
means a novel one. For many years before the death of Elizabeth, 
the question was frequently agitated of a thorough revision of the 
Church Bible which should bring it up in critical accuracy to the de¬ 
mands of the age. Hugh Broughton, the profoundest Biblical scholar 
of the time in England, and probably excelled by none elsewhere, 
wished to devote his own attainments to the task, and urged its claims 
with more enthusiasm than prudence on the great men both in Church 
and State. In 1595, he published a translation of a part of the Old 
Testament, with short explanatory notes, as a specimen of his-pro¬ 
posed work, hoping thereby to secure the countenance and pecuniary 
aid necessary to its completion. Of this he sent a copy to Lord Bur¬ 
leigh, with a letter stating his plan and soliciting his lordship to be 
“ chiefest in contribution toward the charge, which would be exceed¬ 
ing great.” In another letter to the same distinguished person, he 
mentions that “ sundry Lords, and among them some bishops, and 
others inferior of all sorts, had expressed the wish that his long stud¬ 
ies in Hebrew and Greek might be bestowed on the improvement of 
the Bible’s Translation. That they judged rightly that amended it 
must be. In what points, he thought it not good largely to tell in 
words till it were performed in.work ; lest the Bible then in use be 
brought into unnecessary disgrace ; but that all persons of knowledge 
and conscience would grant that bettered much it might be.” He 
reminds the Lord Treasurer that this subject had been presented to 
his notice two years before ; and that ” her Majesty at that time sent 
word and message to Sir Francis Walsingham that it must be consid¬ 
ered, which his Honor had intended to do, but was hindered by 
affairs of State.” He then proposes that six of the most learned lin¬ 
guists, to be sustained by voluntary contributions, be employed in 
executing the work ; whose object shall be, on the one hand, not to 
alter where the translation is already well done ; and on the other, to 
spare nothing that carried open untruth against history and religion, or 
darkness, disannulling the writers. In which kind, Job and the 
Prophets might be brought to speak far better unto us.” 


THE COMMON VERSION. 


243 


But all his hopes were frustrated by the opposition of Whitgift and 
Bancroft, who disliked the man, and dreaded the inexorable honesty 
of his principles of translation. Their avowed objections to his plan 
were indeed of the most pious character, and seemed dictated by a 
holy zeal for the interests of truth. “They feared,” says Strype, 
“ that hereby an occasion might be given to the enemies of our reli¬ 
gion, the Papists, of discrediting our common English Bible and the 
doctrines that were founded on it, and weaken the reputation of that 
former translation then used in the churches.” Broughton, who 
despised their hollow cant, and was as hot-tempered as he was learned, 
denounced their cherished version as a disgrace to English scholar¬ 
ship ; and charged their pretended reverence for it on their unwill¬ 
ingness “ to lose their traps and pitfalls.” This discouragement did 
not, however, cause him to remit his efforts for this great object ; for 
in a letter to Lord Burleigh in 1596, he speaks of “ having written to 
all the realm for the true Bible” ; and he prays his Lordship to ad¬ 
vise the Archbishop, whose opposition seems to have been generally 
recognized as the sole hindrance to the work, “ to take heed lest he 
bring the realm to eternal shame in a matter the highest for reli¬ 
gion. ” * 

We see, from the foregoing, that the subject of a new version of the 
Scriptures was one familiar to English scholars, many years before it 
was proposed by Dr. Reynolds in the Hampton Court Conference ; 
and that not a few churchmen as well as others acknowledged the 
absolute necessity of the work. How indeed could it be otherwise, 
with the fact staring them in the face that the common people were 
daily reading in their homes a version every way superior to that 
which was read to them ‘ by authority,’ on Sundays in the churches ? 
The comparison thus constantly forced on the popular mind, and con¬ 
verted by the warfare between Prelacy and Puritanism into a matter 

* For the facts in this account of Broughton’s efforts for a new translation, see 
Strype’s Life of Whitgift, pp. 3S2, 432, 485, 489, 585, and elsewhere. 

Broughton was one of those unfortunate geniuses-who, with fine qualities and 
high aims in life, seem born to mar their own fortunes and ruin every cause they 
seek to promote through inability to govern their tempers and tongues. His re¬ 
sentment for affronts and injuries was invariably expressed in a way to help his 
enemy and hurt himself. Whatever might be the consequence, he could never 
deny himself the pleasure of using his sting ; and every real or fancied wrong was 
proclaimed to the public with a heat and violence which gave his persecutors the 
advantage of seeming to be the injured party. His life was a series of cruel dis¬ 
appointments ; and in most of them he had himself furnished his more crafty foes 
with the weapons by which they foiled him. So necessary in this world are prud¬ 
ence and temper, as well as merit and honesty ! 


244 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


of lively practical interest, could not have failed to become a fruitful 
source of discussion among all classes, greatly to the disadvantage of 
the State Church. 

Now James, with all his mean and ridiculous traits of character, pos¬ 
sessed an extraordinary amount of shrewdness in regard to everything 
which concerned his regal interests ; a faculty which he dignified with 
the name of Kingcraft, and exulted in as his peculiar gift and glory. 
With his eve fixed on the one object of confirming and extending the 
supremacy, he had in the course of his long reign attained no little royal 
expertness in detecting the bearings of whatever was passing in his 
dominions on this central point of interest. We have already ob¬ 
served, in his remarks on the prayers of the Puritan clergy, the keen¬ 
ness of his scent when on the track of popular tendencies. Can we 
doubt, then, that a subject so important in its relations, and so com¬ 
monly agitated, as a new translation of the Bible, had been already 
subjected in the royal mind to the touchstone of prerogative ? As 
little does his speech in the Conference allow us to doubt that his 
sagacity had discerned what Whitgift and Bancroft had failed to see ; 
namely, that the demand of the age must be directed, not resisted ; 
converted if possible into an instrument of absolutism, not suffered to 
become an instrument of subverting it. Sent out with a prestige of 
scholarship which should silence the reproachful clamors of the Puri¬ 
tans and eclipse their favorite Presbyterian version, yet charged with 
conservative influences, and linked indissolubly with the Church and 
the Throne, the new version promised to become the chief agent in 
maintaining the established order. And hence it was, that though 
this measure was suggested by the obnoxious party he was resolved to 
crush, and was evidently relied on by the nonconformist leaders for 
the promotion of the New Discipline,* it was qietly appropriated by 
James and used for his own purposes. 

* Their plan was both sagacious and liberal. While desiring to deprive Prelacy 
of the advantages which it derived from the Bishops’ Bible, they did not ask that 
it might be superseded by the Genevan, though confessedly superior ; but, on the 
ground of its acknowledged corruptions and imperfections, prayed for a new 
translation, firmly believing that if executed on the principles of true criticism, it 
could not fail to sustain what they held as truth. 


CHAPTER XXX. 


THE COMMON VERSION-CONTINUED. 

How strong a hold the project of a new version had taken of the 
mind of James, and how well he had considered the means for making 
it answerable to his ends, appears from the measures which he imme¬ 
diately adopted for carrying it into execution. Taking the matter 
into his own hands, he set on foot the necessary preliminaries without 
delay, and on a scale surpassing all that had been witnessed in Eng¬ 
land in connection with Bible translation. Bancroft, now fully won 
over to the King’s policy, and appointed general overseer and final 
reviser of the work, pushed it forward with characteristic vigor and 
efficiency. Before the end of July fifty-four scholars had been 
selected as translators, and arranged into six companies, two of which 
were to meet at Westminster, and two at each of the universities. 
The heads of the universities were directed, moreover, to add to the 
number such others as they might deem qualified ; and the bishops 
were exhorted to spare no pains for securing the suggestions and criti¬ 
cisms of the best scholars in their respective dioceses ; “ that so,” in 
his Majesty’s words, “ our said intended translation may have the 
help and furtherance of all our principal learned men within this, our 
kingdom.” 

The maintenance and remuneration of the translators was the 
King’s next care. The following letter, written by him to the Bishop 
of London, exhibits his plan for this object.* 

“ Right trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas, we have 
appointed certain learned men, to the number of fifty-four, for the translating of 
the Bible, and that in this number divers of them have either no ecclesiastical 
preferment at all, or else so very small as the same is far unmeet for men of their 
deserts ; and yet we of ourself, in any convenient time cannot well remedy it. 
Therefore we do heartily require you that presently you write, in our name, as 
well to the Archbishop of York as to the rest of the bishops of the province of 
Canterbury,! signifying unto them that we do will, and straitly charge every one 

* From Regist. III. Whitgift. Copied from Wilkins’ Concilia Magnse Britan, 
et Hibern, vol. iv., p. 407 (Harvard Univ. library) ; also in Strype's Life of 
Whitgift, p. 950. 

f Archbishop Whitgift had died in the preceding February, only a few weeks 


246 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


of them, as also the other bishops of the province of York, as they tender our 
good favor toward them, that (all excuses set apart) when a prebend or parsonage 
being rated in our book of taxations, the prebend at twenty pound at the least,* 
and the parsonage to the like sum and upward, shall next upon any occasion 
happen to be void, and to be either of their patronage and gift, or the like par¬ 
sonage so void to be of the patronage and gift of any person whatsoever ; they do 
make stay thereof, and admit none unto it until certifying us of the avoidance of 
it, and of the name of the patron, (if it be not of their own gift), we may com¬ 
mend for the same some such of the learned men as we shall think fit to be pre¬ 
ferred unto it ; not doubting of the bishops’ readiness to satisfy us herein, or 
that any of the laity, when we shall in time move them to so good and religious 
an act, will be unwilling to give us the like due contentment and satisfaction : We 
ourselves having taken the same order for such prebends and benefices as shall be 
void in our gift. 

“ While We write to you of others, you must apply it to yourself; as also not 
to forget to move the said Archbishop, and all Bishops, with their Deans and 
Chapters, as touching the other point to be imparted otherwise by you unto 
them. [Then follows the direction referred to above for securing the voluntary 
criticisms of the learned clergy of each diocese.] “ Given under Our Signet at 
Our Palace of Westminister, the 226. of July, in the second year of our reign of 
England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland, xxxvii.” 

Ihis letter the Bishop of London communicated to each of his 
brethren, as directed, accompanied by one from himself, dated July 
31st, urging upon their attention “ how careful his Majesty is for the 
providing of livings for those learned men.” “I doubt not,” he 
adds, that your Lordship will have a due regard of his Majesty’s 
request herein, as it is fit and meet ; and that you will take such 
orders, both with your chancellor, register, and such of your Lord- 
ship s officers who shall have intelligence of the premises, as also with 
the dean and chapter of your cathedral church, whom his Majesty like¬ 
wise requireth to be put in mind of his pleasure herein ; not forget¬ 
ting the latter part of his Majesty’s letter, touching the informing of 
yourself of the fittest linguists in your diocese, for to perform, and 
speedily to return, that which his Majesty is so careful to have faith¬ 
fully performed. ’ ’ f 

after the Hampton Court Conference. His apprehension that the Puritan influ¬ 
ence inithe coming Parliament might undo what had been so satisfactorily settled 
in the Conference is supposed to have hastened his death. So well aware was 
he that the measures there carried through, with so high a hand, were in opposi¬ 
tion to the wishes of the most substantial part of the nation ! 

This, it will be recollected, would be equal to many times the same sum at 
the present time. Thus Fuller (vol. iii., p. 220) mentions, as an instance of Arch¬ 
bishop Hutton’s munificence, that “ he founded a hospital in the north and en¬ 
dowed it with a yearly revenue of thirty-five pounds.” 

J Wilkins.and Strype, as quoted above. 


THE COMMON VERSION—CONTINUED. 


24 / 

To this letter was added a postscript explaining “ that other point ” 
in his Majesty s letter, which, being a matter of delicacy, seems to 
have been committed orally to Bancroft to be by him made known 
confidentially to the other prelates. It was, in substance, this : That 
the immediate support of such of the translators as were without liv- 
ings, required a considerable sum to be raised without delay, “ which 
his Majesty of his most princely disposition, was ready to have borne ; 
but that some of the Lords (as things then went) held it inconve¬ 
nient. A contribution for this object was therefore requested of 
the clergy, in his Majesty’s name ; and as a stimulus to their zeal, the 
bishop mentioned that he was directed “ to acquaint his Majesty with 
every man’s liberality toward this godly work.” 

The following letter from Chancellor Cecil to the Vice-chancellor 
and heads of the University of Cambridge, bearing the same date as 
that of the King to Bancroft, suggests still another method of meeting 
this necessity, in order, as it seems, that the work might be taken in 
hand without delay :f 

“ After my very hearty commendations—Whereas his Majesty hath appointed 
certain learned men, in and of your university, to take pains in translating some 
portions of the Scripture, according to an order in that behalf set down (the copy 
whereof remaineth with Mr. Lively, your Hebrew lecturer) his pleasure and com¬ 
mandment is, that you should take such care of that work, as that if you can re¬ 
member any fit men to join with the rest therein, you should in his name assign 
them thereunto ; and that such as are to be called out of the country may be 
entertained in such colleges as the/shall make choice of, without any charge unto 
them either for their entrance, their chamber, or their commons, except it happen 
that any do make choice to remain in any of the poorer colleges that are not well 
able to bear that charge, and there such order will be taken by the Lord Bishop 
of London as that the same shall be defrayed. His Majesty expecteth that you 
should further the business as much as you can, as well by kind usage of the 
parties that take pains therein, as by any other means that you can best devise ; 

* The royal finances were in a desperate condition, the officers of the house¬ 
hold being driven to their wit’s end to obtain either money or credit for his 
Majesty’s weekly expenses. His persevering energy in pushing forward the new 
version under these embarrassments, is all the more worthy of notice. In 1607 
the King thus speaks, in a letter to the Lords, respecting the better improving his 
revenue—“ My Lords : The only disease and consumption which I can ever ap¬ 
prehend as likeliest to endanger me, is this eating canker of want ; which being 
removed, I could think myself as happy in all other respects as any other king or 
monarch that ever was since the birth of Christ. In this disease, I am the 
patient ; and ye have promised to be the physicians, to use the best care upon me 
that your wit, faithfulness, and diligence can reach unto.”—Strype’s Annals, 
Appendix, No. 297. 

f Lewis’ Hist, of Trans, of Bible, p. 313 (from the original in the Archives of 
Cambridge Univ.) 


248 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


taking such order that they may he freed in the meanwhile from all lectures and 
exercises to be supplied for them by your grave directions ; and assuring them 
that he will hereafter have such princely care, as well by himself as by his bishops 
at his commandment, for the preferring of every one of them, as their diligence 
and due respect to his Majesty’s desire in this so worthy an employment, shall 
(he doubteth not) very well deserve.” 


Under the same date as his letter to the bishops, Bancroft wrote to 
the Cambridge translators, informing them :* 


“ That his Majesty being made acquainted with the choice of all them to be 
employed in the translating of the Bible in such sort as Mr. Lively could inform 
them, did greatly approve of the said choice. And forasmuch as his Highness 
was very desirous that the same so religious a work should admit no delay, he 
had commanded him to signify unto them, in his name, that his pleasure was 
they should, with all possible speed, meet together in their university and begin 
the same ; that his Majesty’s care for their better continuance together they might 
perceive by their Right Honorable Chancellor’s letter to the Vice-chancellor and 
heads, but more especially by the copy of a letter written to himself for order to 
be taken with all the bishops of this realm in their behalf, which copy he had here¬ 
with sent them ; that he had desired Mr. Vice-chancellor to send to such of them 
as were not now present in Cambridge to will them in his Majesty’s name that, 
all other occasions and business set aside, they made their present repair unto 
them that were at Cambridge. Upon whose coming, and after they had prepared 
themselves for this business, his Lordship prayed they would write presently unto 
him, that he might inform his Majesty thereof, who could not be satisfied till it was 
in hand. Since, he was persuaded, his royal mind rejoiced more in the good hope 
which he had for the happy success of that work than of his peace concluded with 
Spain. ” 


His Lordship’s letter to the Vice-chancellor, referred to above, is 
as follows :f 

After my very hearty commendations : Being acquainted with a letter lately 
written unto you in his Majesty's name by your right honorable Chancellor, and 
having myself received sundry directions from his Highness for the better setting 
forward of his most royal designment for translating the Bible, 1 do accordingly 
move you, that in his Majesty’s name, agreeably to the charge and trust com¬ 
mitted unto you, no time may be overslipped by you for the better furtherance of 
this holy work. The parties’ names who are appointed to be employed therein 
Mr Lively can show you ; of which number I desire you by him to take notice 
and to write to such of them as are abroad, in his Majesty’s name, (for so far 
my commission extended,), that all excuses set aside, they do presently come to 
Cambridge, there to address themselves forthwith to this business. I am bold-to 
trouble you herewith, because you know better who are absent, where they are 
and how to send unto them than I do. And were it only, I suppose, to ease me 
of that pa,ns, being myself not idle in the meantime, I am persuaded I might ob¬ 
tain at your hands as great a favor. You will scarcely conceive how earnest his 


Lewis, p. 314. 


t Ibid., p. S15. 


THE COMMON VERSION—CONTINUED. 


249 


Majesty is to have this work begun ; and therefore I doubt not you will, for your 
parts, in anything.that is within your compass, as well in this moved now unto 
you, as for their entertainment when they come and better encouragement, set 
forward the same. And so, being always ready to assist you, if any difficulties do 
arise in the progress of this business, I commit you unto the tuition of Almighty 
God.” 

With this letter was likewise sent a copy of the King’.s Instruc¬ 
tions to the Translators, being a complete set of Rules devised 
and ordained by his Majesty for their guidance in the preparation of 
the work. As a statement both of the methods and the principles on 
which our Common Version was executed, they are worthy of the 
reader’s most attentive consideration. They were as follows :* 

1. The ordinary Bible read in the church, commonly called the Bishops’ Bible, 
to be followed and as little altered as the original will permit. 

2. The names of the prophets and the holy writers, with the other names in the 
text, to be retained as near as may be accordingly as they are vulgarly used. 

3. The ecclesiastical words to be kept, namely, as the word church not to be 
translated congregation , etc. 

4. When any word hath divers significations, that to be kept which hath been 
most commonly used by the most eminent Fathers, being agreeable to the pro¬ 
priety of the place and the analogy of faith. 

5. The division of the chapters to be altered either not at all,or as little as may 
be, if necessity so require. 

6. No marginal notes at all to be affixed, but only for the explanation of the 
Hebrew or Greek words, which cannot, without some circumlocution, so briefly 
and fitly be expressed in the text. 

7. Such quotations of places to be marginally set down as shall serve for the fit 
references of one Scripture to another. 

8. Every particular man of each company to take the same chapter or chapters 
and, having translated or amended them severally by himself where he thinks 
good, all to meet together, confer what they have done, and agree for their part 
what shall stand. 

9. As any one company hath dispatched any one book in this manner, they 
shall send it to the rest to be considered of seriously and judiciously ; for his 
Majesty is very careful in this point. 

10. If any company, upon the review of the book so sent, shall doubt or differ 
upon any places, to send them word thereof, note the places, and therewithal 
send their reasons ; to which, if they consent not, the difference to be compound¬ 
ed at the general meeting, which is to be of the chief persons of each company, at 
the end of the work. 

11. When any place of special obscurity is doubted of, letters to be directed by 
authority, to send to any learned in the land for his judgment in such a place. 

12. Letters to be sent from every bishop to the rest of his clergy, admonishing 
them of this translation in hand, and to move and charge as many as, being skill¬ 
ful in the tongues, have taken pains in that kind, to send his particular observa¬ 
tions to the company, either at Westminster, Cambridge, or Oxford, 

* Fuller’s Ch. Hist., Book X., Sect, iii., 2. 


250 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


13. The directors in each company to be the Deans of Westminster and Chester 
for that place, and the King’s Professors in the Hebrew and G t reek in each Uni¬ 
versity. 

14. These translations to be used when they agree better with the text than the 
Bishops’ Bible ; namely, Tyndale’s, Matthew’s, Coverdale’s, Whitchurch’s [Cran- 
mer’s], the Genevan. 

Of the fifty-four appointed translators, only forty-seven actually 
engaged in the work. Among these it was apportioned in the follow¬ 
ing manner : 

Of the three companies to whom was committed the Old Testa¬ 
ment, the first —ten in number—met at Westminster, under the direc¬ 
tion of Dr. Launcelot Andrews, Dean of Westminster. To them was 
assigned the Pentateuch and other historical books, as far as the end 
of 2d Kings. 

The second—eight in number—with Edward Lively, regius Profes¬ 
sor of Hebrew at Cambridge as President, met at that university. 
They had for their portion from the first of Chronicles to the end of 
Ecclesiastes. 

The third met at Oxford, under Dr. John Harding, President of 
Magdalen College, and Professor of Hebrew. They took the remain¬ 
der of the Old Testament, from Isaiah to Malachi. 

Of the two companies on the New Testament, the first—consisting 
of eight translators—met at Oxford, under Dr. Thomas Ravis, Dean 
of Christ’s Church. Their portion was the four Gospels, the Acts 
of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse. 

To the second—seven in number—who met at Westminster, under 
Dr. Wm. Barlow, Dean of Chester, were assigned the Epistles. 

The remaining company assembled at Cambridge under Dr. 
Dupont, Prebend of Ely, and Master of Jesus’ College, consisted 
of seven scholars, devoted exclusively to the Apocrypha. 

A disagreement having arisen among the Cambridge translators in 
regard to the application of the third and fourth rules, his Majesty, 
being informed of the same through the Bishop of London, added a 
new feature to the arrangements, viz. : a special Board, consisting of 
“ three or four of the most ancient and grave divines, to be assigned 
by the Vice-Chancellor, upon conference with the rest of the heads, 
to be Overseers of the Translation, as well Hebrew as Greek, for the 
better observation of the rules appointed by his Highness, and espe¬ 
cially concerning the third and fourth rules.”* 

♦ * Lewis, p. 319.—In these rules and regulations, we find a sufficient explana¬ 
tion of the exclusion of Hugh Broughton from the list of translators. He would 
never have subjected his scholarship to such restraints, or yielded to the arbitrary 


THE COMMON VERSION—CONTINUED. 251 

The exact time when the translation was commenced has not been 
ascertained. It has been currently supposed that the death, in May, 
i 6o 5, of Edward Lively, the most distinguished Hebraist connected 
with the work, delayed even its commencement till considerably after 
that time. But it seems to be pretty clearly settled that the first 
revision was finished some time in 1607 ; and from a remark in the 
Preface, it appears that this had occupied not less than three years, 
which carries the beginning of their work back to 1604. 

Their method of proceeding, in accordance with the King’s direc¬ 
tions, was as follows. The members of a company all took the same 
portion, which each first revised by himself ; then all met together to 
make up a copy on which they could agree. The part thus com¬ 
pleted was then submitted to the other companies for their criticisms ; 
and if these were approved by the first revisers, they were adopted as 
permanent ; if otherwise, they were reserved for the judgment of the 
final revisers. 

The whole version being completed in this manner, three copies 
were made of it (one at each place) and delivered to a committee of 
twelve—six of whom were chosen by the translators from their own 
number—two from each company—and six, it is supposed, were 
selected by the King, according to his first intention, from his bishops 
and other learned ecclesiastics not previously connected with the 
translation.* 

The work having received this second revision, passed into the 
hands of Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, and Dr Miles Smith (soon 
after made Bishop of Gloucester)!, who again revised the whole, and 
prefixed arguments to the several books. By the King’s direction Dr. 
Smith also wrote a Preface for the work, which is chiefly occupied 
with a defence of its design and character against various classes of 
opposers. 

decisions of men confessedly far inferior to him in learning. Strype tells us— 
Life of Whitgift, p. 589—that in the selection of translators, such were avoided 
“ as should affect many alterations, and different readings from the former ver¬ 
sion, more than needed. Of which sort,” he adds, “ was the great linguist Mr. 
Broughton, whose mind the Archbishop knew full well, having divers years 
before condemned that translation, charging it with a great number of errors un¬ 
deservedly, and treated very rudely those grave and learned bishops that were em¬ 
ployed in it, as though they had translated from the Latin, and wanted sufficient 
skill.” 

* Jntrod. to Bagster’s English Hexapla, p. 108. 

f Next to Bancroft, Bilson had made himself conspicuous among the prelates 
of the Hampton Court Conference, in opposition to the Puritans. Dr. Smith’s 
sentiments toward them are sufficiently manifest in the tone of his Preface, and 
in his speedy promotion to the Bench of Bishops. 


252 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


Finally, the Bishop of London received it in charge, and bestowed 
such finishing touches as were yet needed to fit it for its destined 
position. 

It was at length published in 1611, with a dedication to the King, 
in which flattery was carried to its culminating point. The title page 
proclaimed that it had been executed “ by his Majesty’s special com¬ 
mandment,” and that it was “ appointed to be read in churches.”* 

Thus have we traced the origin of our common version, and the 
principles and method observed in its preparation. It only remains 
to make a few remarks in regard to the character of the version, which 
was the product of so singular a combination of influences. 

The breadth of the King’s plan, as compared with that of Arch¬ 
bishop Parker, is worthy of special notice. It was the Primate’s aim 
to advance the cause of Episcopacy by excluding all but bishops from 
a share in preparing the Bible to be used in Divine service ; thus 
placing them before the people as a distinct sacred class, their author¬ 
ized teachers and directors in matters of religion. This had, no 
doubt, some advantages ; but, on the other hand, it divided them 
from the sympathy of the great body of English scholars, exposed 
their work and their own pretensions to unsparing criticism, and gave 
to the claims of the Genevan version the fairest chance of recogni¬ 
tion. The plan of James, on the other hand, opened a field for the 
scholarship of England. Her chief schools of learning were invited 
to contribute to it their choicest sons. All classes of the clergy were 
represented in it. Even Puritan scholarship was welcomed to a dis¬ 
tinguished place in the noble task. Its importance and dignity were 
further -enhanced by the King’s requirement that all other literary 
employment—even lectures in the university—should be relinquished 
for the time, and that the translators should be relieved of all care for 
their own support ; while the royal employer pledged himself to 
reward their labor by honorable and profitable preferment for life. 
Nor was this all. The co-operation of every learned man in the king¬ 
dom, by suggestions and criticisms for the use of the immediate trans¬ 
lators, was solicited with an urgency which would give compliance 
the grace of a favor to the King himself. Could a method have been 

* “No evidence, however” (says Wescott, in his History of the English Bible, 
pp. 157-8), “ has yet been produced to show that the version was ever publicly 
sanctioned by Convocation or by Parliament, or by the Privy Council, or by the 
King. It gained its currency partly, it may have been, by the weight of the king’s 
name, partly by the personal authority of the prelates and scholars who had been 
engaged upon it, but still more by its own intrinsic superiority over its rivals.” 

T. J. C. 


THE COMMON VERSION—CONTINUED. 


253 

more skillfully devised for enlisting in the new version the universal 
interest of scholars, and for turning all eyes to it as a great national 
work ? But it was also a Protestant work. Papists alone had no 
part in it. And thus it appealed to all good Protestants as a recogni¬ 
tion of their common faith, and their common detestation of the cor¬ 
rupt and bloody Church of Rome. 

So liberal, so catholic was the enterprise, when viewed on one side. 
Let us now look at it from another point—the principles to be ob¬ 
served in its execution. The first, third, and fourth of the King’s 
rules for the translators furnish the answer on this point. The ordinary 
Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishops’ Bible, is to 
be followed, and as little altered as the original will permit. The 
principle adopted in that version in regard to ecclesiastical words, as 
church for congregation , is to be still binding. Words with divers sig¬ 
nifications are to be translated according to the use of the Fathers, if 
agreeable to the propriety of the place and the analogy of faith. In 
other words, the appearance of change, which might throw discredit 
on the authority of the Church is to be cautiously avoided ; the eccle¬ 
siastical terms which subserve the present constitution of the Church 
are to be retained, and not translated ; the translation of doubtful 
words is to be decided by the doctrines of the Church. 

If these rules have any other meaning, it must be shown on other 
testimony than that of the version itself. That they contained the 
pith and marrow of James’ design is seen also in that committee of 
the “most ancient and grave divines,” appointed for the express 
object of securing conformity to the King’s wishes in these particu¬ 
lars. It is noticeable, moreover, that the prizes held out to the trans¬ 
lators as a stimulus to their industry and ambition, were high posi¬ 
tions in the Church ; and of course not to be secured without sub¬ 
scription to its doctrines and discipline. Thus the accuracy of the 
version was to be made subordinate to considerations of expediency ; 
and the scholarship concentrated on it was but to give new solidity 
and Jclat to an ecclesiastical system which the majority of the Eng¬ 
lish nation at that very time deemed at variance with the word of 
God.* 

* “The following observation will confirm,” says Hallam, “ what may startle 
some readers, that the Puritans, or at least those who rather favored them, had 
a majority among the Protestant gentry in the Queen’s [Elizabeth’s] days. It is 
agreed on all hands, and is quite manifest, that they predominated in the House 
of Commons ; but that House was composed, as it has ever been, of the principal 
landed proprietors, and as much represented the general wish of the commu¬ 
nity, ivhen it demanded a farther reform in religious matters, as on any other 


254 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


The same object is manifest also in the succeeding measures. The 
next step in the original plan was to subject it to the examination of 
the bishops ; and this seems to have been substantially followed in the 
third revision by a select committee consisting of six translators, and 
the same number of Church dignitaries not concerned in the transla¬ 
tion. To this succeeded a fourth, by two high-churchmen ; and 
finally it passed into the hands of Bancroft, now Archbishop of Can¬ 
terbury—a man without scholarship, without scruples, and with no 
power above him but the King, whose objects in this undertaking 
precisely coincided with his own. But though he gave account to no 
man of his proceedings in this matter, yet the whole body of the 
translators stood before the public as endorsers of all he might please 
to do ; and the Puritans were made to bear involuntary witness to the 
divine institution of the State Church, no less than the most zealous 
of her sons.* 

The excellencies and the defects of the version thus produced are 
just what we should expect from its history. King James’ third and 
fourth rules, while they decided its character in certain important 
respects, on principles as arbitrary and unsound as those adopted by 
the Rhemish translators, affected the expression only in single points. 
Portions of the work reflect the highest credit on the scholarship of 
the time. Bedell and Reynolds, and some other of the revisers, were 
undoubtedly masters of all that was then known of sacred criticism ; 
and that they bestowed their utmost pains on the work there can be 
no question. But all the translators were not scholars ; and conse¬ 
quently, other portions fall decidedly behind some of the previous 

subject. One would imagine, by the manner in which some express themselves, 
that the discontented were a small faction, who, by some unaccountable means, 
in despite of the government and the nation, formed a majority of all parliaments 
under Elizabeth and her two successors.”— Constitutional History of England, ch. 
iv., Note to p. 115 (Am. edition.) 

* What use was made of this power by Bancroft is unknown. He was pub¬ 
licly charged with having altered the version in fourteen places. Dr. Smith is 
said to have admitted, in answer to complaints from previous revisers, that “ he 
was so potent, there was no resisting him.” 

The reader of this history will find a remarkable coincidence between the 
rendering of 1 Peter ii., 13 in King James’ Revision, {to the King , aj supreme,) 
and the language used by him at the Hampton Court Conference (p. 238). This 
passage was rendered in the Bishops’ Bible ; unto the King , as having the pre¬ 
eminence. Among the other versions to be consulted when that of the Bishops 
failed, it stood thus : Tyndale, Coverdale, Cranmer and Matthew’s : unto the 
King , as unto the chief head; Genevan : unto the King as unto the superior. To 
whom do we owe it that King James’ Revision was the first among English 
translations which recognized in words the King's supremacy? 


THE COMMON VERSION—CONTINUED. 


255 


versions. Passages are mistranslated which Tyndale and Coverdale 
and the Genevan—some or all of them—had translated right. As a 
whole, moreover, the work could not but exhibit the retrogressive 
tendency of that rigid conservatism which had made adherence to a 
defective version the fundamental rule of the revision, and deviation 
from it the exception, only to be allowed in cases of necessity. 
Under this pressure, much would be left untouched which an un¬ 
shackled translator, aiming only to present the most perfect reflection 
of the divine original, would have changed for the better ; and the 
changes that were ventured on would often be made with a timid 
hand. Its imperfection is, however, to be ascribed in part to the 
King’s haste, which did not allow sufficient time for the ripening of 
the work. In the opinion of the learned Genebrard, a scholar as well 
qualified to judge on such matters as any of that age, the labor of 
thirty men for thirty years would not have been too large an estimate 
for the thorough execution of so great a work.* But James, while he 
wanted the best of versions, wanted it for a specific purpose ; and 
that purpose could not be answered even by an immaculate version 
thirty years ahead. His anxiety for its completion is made the basis 
of the following high-flown compliment in the dedication of the 
work : 

“ Of the infinite arguments of a right Christian and religious affection in your 
Majesty, none is more forcible to declare it to others than the vehement and per¬ 
petuated desire of accomplishing and publishing this work, which we now pre¬ 
sent unto your Majesty. For when once your Majesty, out of deep judgment, 
had apprehended how convenient it was that out of the Original Sacred Tongues, 
together with comparing of the labors, both in our own and other foreign lan¬ 
guages, of many worthy men who went before us, there should be one more exact 
translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English tongue ; your Majesty did 
never desist to urge and to excite those to whom it was commended, that the 
work might be hastened, and that the business might be expedited in so decent 
a manner as a matter of such importance might justly require.” 

It has been objected, also, to the method prescribed by James, that 
decision by plurality of voices is not always the safest method of reach¬ 
ing philological conclusions. It is obvious upon reflection, moreover, 
that the plan of successive sets of revisers, though at first sight prom¬ 
ising faultless accuracy, may prove, in practice, quite the reverse. 
For if the work should pass from the better into the worse hands, it 
would be marred rather than mended by the additional labor We 
have no evidence that among the revisers employed by James there 


* He reckoned the necessary cost at 200,000 crowns. 


25 6 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


were any more faithful or competent than those who performed the 
first revision ; and it is at least probable that had it been given to the 
public as they left it, it would have stood better the test of after 
times. That some of them were much dissatisfied with the arbitrary 
handling of their labor is beyond question. Both the Dedication and 
the Preface contain allusions to the Puritans, hardly to be explained 
except on the supposition of dissatisfaction in this respect among a 
part of the translators. In the former, after expressing the sanguine 
hope “ that the Church of England will reap good fruit” by means of 
the new Bible, the writers petition that it may receive the royal 
support, both against those enemies of the faith, the Papists, and 
against the slanders of “ self-conceited brethren, who run their 
own ways, and give liking unto nothing but what is framed by 
themselves, and hammered on their anvil.” In the Preface they 
make particular mention that they have on the one hand “ avoided 
the scrupulosity of the Puritans, who leave the old ecclesiastical 
words and betake them to others ; as when they put washing for bap- 
tism , and congregation for church ; as on the other side they shunned 
the obscurity of the Papists in their azymes , tunike , rational , holocaust , 
and a number of such like, whereof their late translation is full.” At 
the very outset of this work, it will be remembered, disagreements of 
this kind occasioned the appointment of an extra Board of Overseers. 
Dr. Gell, who stood in an intimate relation to one of the translators, 
Dr. Abbott (afterward so disliked by James as the mild and liberal 
Archbishop of Canterbury), has said of its defects : “ Yet is not all 
the blame to be laid upon the translators ; but part of it is to be 
shared with them also who set them at work, who by reasons of state 
limited them (as some of them have much complained) lest they might 
be thought not to set forth a new translation but rather a new 
Bible.”* And he further asserts, that “many mistranslated words 
and phrases by plurality of voices were carried into the context, and 
the better translation was cast into the margin.” 

Such was the origin and history of our Common Version. The 
facts thus brought to view, by dissipating the mysterious halo which 
more than two and a half centuries have gathered round it, may 
diminish the blind fondness of our regard ; but they exhibit also its 
indisputable claims on our intelligent affection and veneration. 

It is to be remembered with gratitude, not to James but to an over¬ 
ruling Providence, that the objects the King had in view required no 


* Essay toward the amendment of the last 
Preface, p. 29. 


Eng. Trans, of the Bible (1659), 


THE COMMON VERSION—CONTINUED. 


25 / 


perversion or obscuration of the essential doctrines of our faith. 
The foundation still stood sure ; the wells of salvation still gushed 
full and free, and all who would might drink and live. Even James’ 
conservative narrowness was made the instrument of securing to the 
version one feature of inestimable value. We owe it to his anxiety for 
the credit of the Bible already sanctioned by the Church, that the 
English Scriptures still speak to us of these later days in substantially 
the same simple, noble, glowing phraseology in which Tyndale so long 
before had clothed the sacred oracles for the English people. That 
K>ng James’ revisers could not have changed its general manner for 
the better is sufficiently evident from the specimens of their ability 
which they have furnished in single cases. Whether in this respect it 
can ever be essentially improved, may well be questioned. It is at 
least certain that the English mind, thus long accustomed to a style so 
in unison with the simple majesty of the inspired original, will be 
slow to accept of any version conceived in a totally different spirit. 

Nor must we forget that this version, though the immediate product 
of James’ selfish ambition, was no less truly the offspring of English 
Protestantism. It owed its existence, primarily, to that deep-voiced 
popular demand for the word of God, and for that word in its purity, 
which had been so long one of the most striking as it was the noblest 
exponent of Anglo-Saxon piety. He seized upon this generous public 
sentiment, and used it for his own ends. But none the less was its 
life from the hearts of the people ; none the less does it bear witness 
to that law of progress, which had already marked the course of Eng¬ 
lish history for more than two centuries with successive vernacular 
translations. 

In the opening chapter of this volume the Bible is claimed to be the 
true Magna Charta of the people. This has fully appeared in the 
facts of the preceding history. What else awakened in the bosoms of 
the down-trodden English masses those aspirations after light, that 
consciousness of manhood, that sense of moral obligation, which in¬ 
spired and sustained their long struggle with tyranny ? Through all 
the stages of this eventful story, embracing more than two centuries, 
the direct influence of the Bible in raising the common mind, in im¬ 
parting to it a knowledge of its rights, and a fitness for enjoying them, 
is attested by facts so numerous and so striking that the wonder is 
they should ever have been overlooked. We have seen it giving birth 
in the fourteenth century, to religious inquiry and spiritual freedom, 
and in connection with these to the spirit of civil liberty. Under 
Henry VIII., under Bloody Mary, what numbers were strengthened 
by it to endure death, and shame worse than death, rather than sub- 


258 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


mit to be enslaved in soul ! In the reign of Elizabeth these influences 
of the Bible developed themselves still more, as the use of it was more 
general and unrestrained. Who were then the advocates of a spirit¬ 
ual worship, as opposed to that of outward rites and garb and post¬ 
ure ; of equality among the ministers of Christ, and of the rights of 
the laity as members with them of the Christian body ? Who pleaded 
for the rights of conscience, for free discussion, and an unrestricted 
press ? None other than those who held to the Bible, as supreme and 
sole authority in religion. 

Could we trace this great principle still farther down the stream of 
English history, we should find that the forewarnings of Whitgift and 
his predecessors had something of prophetic insight. The revolution 
of 1642 developed what they had so much dreaded, its dangerous 
leaning to “ a Popularity.”* The inspiration of the Puritan soldier 
was the “ Soldier’s Bible. ”f But the great crisis of 1688, when Eng¬ 
lish nonconformists held the balance of political power, revealed in it 
a still nobler element. Then were seen Presbyterians, Independents, 
Quakers and Baptists, at the price of their own immediate freedom, 
emolument, and honor, taking their stand side by side with their 
ancient oppressor in defence of the constitutional liberties of Eng¬ 
land. 

The natural and complete unfolding of this principle in its relations 
to the state was reserved for this western continent. The miniature 
commonwealth which sprang into being among the snows of Ply¬ 
mouth was its own immediate offspring ; and its mission was fulfilled 
when it had taught the empire developed from that feeble germ, that 
religion needs no other aid from the state than the guardianship of 
the rights of conscience ; and that the state needs no aid from religion, 
except what it derives from the virtues by her implanted in the indi- 
vidual citizen. These truths, though not yet fully recognized by our 
elder kinsmen, have largely infused their spirit into the old frame¬ 
work of English society ; softening its hard medieval features with 
the beautiful light of progress and practical freedom. Alone among 
the nations stand these sister lands ; deriving whatever is noble and 
beneficent in their institutions, from the tendencies which the English 
Bible has imparted to the English mind. ’ 

* Their common designation of a popular form of government. 

f “ The Souldier's Pocket Bible:" London, 1643. See Appendix, No. III. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


DEMAND FOR A MORE THOROUGH REVISION. 

We have already seen that there was much dissatisfaction with some 
of the arrangements made by King James for the execution of the 
revision which bears his name. The haste with which the work was 
urged forward, “ for reasons of state,” made it impossible to do full 
justice even to the then existing materials for a thorough revision.* 
It is now conceded that the work would have been improved by a 
more thorough comparison of the earlier English versions and a closer 
conformity to them.f There were also among the revisers material 
differences of opinion on points of translation, to which the Dedica¬ 
tion to the King alludes, and with scant courtesy invokes the royal 
support against views adverse to those expressed in the revision. 

Accordingly the work was not received by the generation for whom 
it was prepared, with the unanimity its promoters had desired. It 
had not yet fairly established itself as the Bible for general use when 
measures were adopted for a new revision of the Scriptures. An 
order for this purpose was introduced in the Long Parliament in 
1652, and again in 1656, and was made the subject of long and 
grave deliberation by a special committee of the House of Commons.f 
In 1659 Robert Gell published an “ Essay toward the Amendment of 
the last English Translation of the Bible.” But owing to the politi¬ 
cal agitations of the time, the design failed of execution. And from 
the restoration of the Stuarts to the first quarter of the reign of 
George III., a period of about one hundred and twenty years, the 
minds of men were so entirely occupied by great political events, or 
with purely secular and controversial literature that little attention was 

* “ Your Majesty did never desist to urge and excite those to whom it was 
committed, that the work might be hastened.” Dedication to the King. 

f With regard to the 14th rule ordained for the guidance of King James’ re¬ 
visers, Bishop Ellicott says in his treatise on “ Revision of the New Testament,” 
pp. 80-1 : “ The rule was good, but it may be said generally that it was not very 
carefully followed, except perhaps in the case of the Genevan Version. Had they 
followed it more closely, they would have removed several errors which they left 
remaining, and have avoided some which they introduced. 

f Journal of the House of Commons : and Whitelocke’s Memorials of the 
English Affairs. London, 1732, (Harvard University Library). 


26 o 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


given to Biblical learning. King James’ revision gradually came into 
general use, and although for nearly half a century the Genevan ver¬ 
sion competed with it in the esteem of Puritan readers, it ultimately 
became the Bible of the English-speaking race.* 

But notwithstanding its universally acknowledged excellence, and 
its general fidelity to revealed truth, the Common Version has not 
held its place without remonstrance. It is not too much to say, that 
for more than two hundred years English scholars have had one Bible 
and the common people another. This has not been wholly the fault 
of the learned, though it must be admitted that the natural conserv¬ 
atism of true learning has had much to do with it. 

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century renewed interest in the 
work of Bible revision was shown by individual scholars. In 1778 
Bishop Lowth published his metrical translation of Isaiah. His notes 
are valuable, and the translation elegant, but the liberties he took 
with the Hebrew text make it worthless as a revision. A little later, 
Gilbert Wakefield, a distinguished English theologian, a Dissenter, 
brought out translations of parts of the New Testament, and in 1791 
the whole of die New Testament with notes. Dr. George Campbell, 
President of Marischal College, Aberdeen, published “ The Four 
Gospels, with Dissertations and Notes” toward the close of the eight¬ 
eenth century. His preliminary dissertations and his notes are still 
useful ; but his style of translation did not commend the proposal for 
a new revision. In 1785-8, Archbishop NewcOme published his 
“ New Critical Version of the Twelve Minor Prophets and Ezekiel 
in 1792 ” An Historical View of English Bible Translation and in 
1796 “ An Attempt toward Revising our English Translation of the 
Greek Scriptures.” These works were of value in their time ; but no 
great progress had then been made in Biblical scholarship, and the 
translations are inferior in style to that of the Common Version. 

Since the beginning of the present century, however, the advance in 
all branches of learning has been very great, and the facilities for 
undertaking the work of revision are now abundant. There is little 
probability, indeed, of much addition to them for a long time to 
come. 

The modern era of textual criticism, commencing with the labors 
of Mill (Greek Testament , 1707), continued by Bengel (Greek Testa¬ 
ment, 1734), and by Griesbach (Greek Testament , 1775-1806, the first 


* It is an interesting fact that many copies of the Genevan Version were 
brought to New England by the Puritans—one of which, a precious heirloom, i«? 
row in the possession of the Rev. E. Kempshall, DD., of Elizabeth, N. J. 


DEMAND FOR A MORE THOROUGH REVISION. 261 

strictly critical Greek text), has culminated in the labors of Tischen- 
dorf and Tregelles in our own day. The Greek text of the New Tes¬ 
tament, as known in the time of King James, was derived from a 
small number of Greek manuscripts of very modern date, which would 
now be regarded as of little weight in determining the true text of the 
sacred writers. Ihose now known, early and late, number little less 
than two thousand. The oldest Greek manuscript of the New Tes¬ 
tament in England, the Alexandrine ms., was-brought there in 1628. 
Only two ancient manuscripts, the Cambridge ms. of the Gospels and 
Acts, and the Claremont ms. of Paul’s Epistles, were then known to 
Christian scholars, and these had not been critically examined. The 
celebrated Vatican manuscript, probably the oldest of the New Tes¬ 
tament in existence, was not then accessible ; and the Sinaitic manu¬ 
script, nearly as old, has been discovered within a few years. The 
important Ephraem manuscript has but recently been fully brought to 
light, and was wholly unknown in the time of King James. Other 
ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, or of portions of it, have 
recently been added to them, till the whole number, including parts 
of manuscripts, amount to nearly a hundred. 

These manuscript copies are only one class of the authorities relied 
on for ascertaining the true Greek text. Another class consists of 
extant manuscript copies of numerous ancient versions ; of the Old 
Testament dating from the first to the third century before Christ, 
and of the Old and New Testaments from the second to the eighth 
century after Christ. These are often helpful in determining con¬ 
tested points A third class are the quotations from the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures, found in the writings of the early Christian Fathers, from the 
second century onward ; and these are so numerous, that if the text of 
the New Testament were lost, it might be almost wholly recovered from 
their writings. These two classes of authorities were both inaccessi¬ 
ble in the time of James ; either from want of knowledge of the lan¬ 
guages in which they were written, or from want of correct editions of 
the text, which modern scholarship has supplied. 

The Jews have been distinguished for their fidelity to the text of 
their Hebrew Scriptures. To them it was a sacred trust, and a cher¬ 
ished birthright. Their Scriptures were both the record and the sole 
relic of their once proud nationality. They saw in them the charter 
of their rights and privileges as the chosen people of the most high 
God, the Maker of heaven and earth. Of the many nations with 
whom they dwelt apart while among them, they saw none that could 
boast an origin, a history, and a destiny like theirs. Their present 
humiliation and its causes they found there described ; and with them 


262 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


the prophetic promise of future restoration and triumph. None of 
these nations could boast a literature like theirs 5 far surpassing in 
sublime eloquence and profound truths the highest efforts of human 
genius and intellect. Hence to no other people could its literature be 
what theirs was to them, and they guarded its text with jealous and 
ever watchful care. 

In the early* centuries of our era, learned Jewish scholars devoted 
their leisure to the laborious comparison of ancient manuscript copies 
of their Scriptures, in order to discover and correct errors of tran¬ 
scription, and to ascertain the genuine text of the sacred writings. 
Their labors resulted in the Masoretic text, so-called, leaving to mod¬ 
ern investigators the plainer task of conforming to it the printed cop¬ 
ies, under the principles and rules by which they were guided. 1 his 
task has been prosecuted with great diligence and success ; first by 
native Jews, and after them by Christian scholars, who have entered 
zealously into their labors.* 

The present era of Hebrew learning dates from the issue, in 
1810—12, of Gesenius’ “ Hebrew and German Lexicon, and in 1817, 
of his “System of Hebrew Grammar.” His labors were supple¬ 
mented by those of a host of eager toilers in Germany, America and 
England, the results of whose researches are now available for provid¬ 
ing a more faithful English version of the Jewish Scriptures. The 
advance in Greek scholarship during the same period has more than 
kept pace with that in Hebrew. The grammars and lexicons of the 
present day are incomparably superior to any existing at the time our 
Common Version w T as made ; and within the last half century equal 
progress has been made in the understanding of the peculiarities of 
the Greek and the New Testament. 

The recent discoveries in archaeology, in geography, and in the 
manners and customs of the East have also shed a flood of light upon 
the sacred page. Much that was unintelligible to the early transla¬ 
tors, through their ignorance of these important sources of informa¬ 
tion, has been made clear to the modern scholar, who is now able, by 
their help, to give the exact sense of many passages hitherto obscure 
or meaningless to the ordinary reader. This is especially true with 
respect to the deciphering of the inscriptions upon the ancient Assy¬ 
rian monuments—a marvellous example of patient and scholarly 

* The Jews can claim the high honor of having first employed the art of print¬ 
ing to multiply copies of the Holy Scriptures.. After bringing out parts of the 
Old Testament, the Psalms in 1477. the five books of Moses in 1482, and the 
Hagiographa in 1487, they printed the whole Hebrew Scriptures in 1488 ; a 
hundred and twenty years before the first printing of the Greek New Testament. 


DEMAND FOR A MORE THOROUGH REVISION. 


263 


research. The translator, as well as the interpreter of God’s word, 
linds in these long-buried records of an extinct civilization material 
assistance in his work. 

It was in order that the unlearned readers of the English Bible 
might share with scholars the benefit of these great advances in Bibli¬ 
cal scholarship, that in 1853 the American Bible Union was formed 
with the avowed object of securing a thorough revision of the Com¬ 
mon Version. The rules adopted for the direction of the revisers 
employed were as follows : 

1. The received Greek text critically edited, with known errors corrected, must 
be followed. 

2. The common English version must be the basis of revision, and only such 
alterations must be made as the exact meaning of the text and the existing state 
of the language may require. 

3. The exact meaning of the inspired text, as that text expressed it to those 
who understood the original Scriptures at the time they were first written, must 
be given in corresponding words and phrases, so far as they can be found in 
the English language, with the least possible obscurity or indefiniteness. 

The application of these rules is thus stated by the reviser of the 
Gospel of Matthew, in his Introduction : 

“ The version of the Gospel by Matthew, here presented to the public, is not a 
new translation. It is a revision of the common English version ; intended to 
bring that version to the present standard of critical learning, correcting its inac¬ 
curacies and its obscurities in English expression. In all these respects, the 
writer’s object is the same as that of King James’ revisers ; whose aim was not 
(to use their own words) 4 to make a new translation, nor yet to make of a bad 
one a good one : . . . but to make a good one better, or out of many good ones, 
one principal good one.’ 

“ In regard to the English style, the reviser has followed closely in their foot- 
steps. The noble stock of English phraseology, which they found embodied in 
the earlier versions and revisions, and which they retained as the most fitting 
vehicle for the inspired thought of the original, forms the substance of the pres¬ 
ent revision. Where accuracy or clearness demanded a change, he has endeav¬ 
ored to make it in the same tone and manner ; selecting the expression from the 
simple nervous Saxon vocabulary furnished by the English Bible itself in its 
successive revisions, and by the best writers contemporary with them.” 

The publications of the Bible Union awakened great interest in this 
country, where the supporters of the Society were numbered by thou¬ 
sands ; and the merits of the later revisions issued by the Union were 
acknowledged by scholarly critics in America, England and Germany. 
But the project of revision was vehemently opposed ; the great body 
of Christian people at that time regarding it as little short of sacrilege 


264 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


to make any, even the slightest, change in the Common Version.* 
Even scholars were not agreed as to the necessity or the propriety of 
attempting a new revision. The publication of these revisions, how¬ 
ever, and their republication in England, undoubtedly did much to 
further the cause of Bible revision in both countries. 

In 1857-58, the publication of a revision of the Gospel of John, 
the Epistle to the Romans, and the two Epistles to the Corinthians, by 
five clergymen, distinguished scholars of the Church of England, 
made a deep impression on the public mind, and prepared the way 
for further efforts in the same direction. These were soon followed 
by the learned and enthusiastic treatises on the subject of revision by 
Lightfoot, Trench and Ellicott (afterward republished in America by 
their permission, with an introduction by Dr. Philip Schaff), which 
fully proved at once that revision was a necessity, and that it ought 
not to be any longer delayed. Dean Trench, in his treatise, published 
in 1859, found himself compelled to say : “ The question, shall we or 
shall we not have a new revision of the Authorized Version, is one 
which is presenting itself more and more familiarly to the minds of 
men.” 

Moved by these and similar discussions of the subject, the Convo¬ 
cation of Canterbury at length took decisive action for a revision of 
the common version.f At its session of May 6, 1870, a committee 
which consisted of eight bishops, the late Dean Alford, Dean Stanley, 
and several other dignitaries, reported : 

1. That it is desirable that a revision of the Authorized Version of the Holy 
Scriptures be undertaken. 

2. That the revision be so conducted as to comprise both marginal renderings 
and such emendations as it may be found necessary to insert in the text of the 
Authorized Version. 

* A striking illustration of the popular feeling then prevalent is afforded by the 
signal failure of the effort to improve the common version made by the American 
Bible Society in 1851. “ A committee appointed by the Society in 1848,” says 

Dr. Schaff in his introduction to “ The Revision of the New Testament,” “ found 
many errors and inconsistencies in the best English editions. . * . The Com¬ 

mittee on Versions (including such scholars as Drs. Edward Robinson, Samuel 
H. Turner, and John M Clintock) spent three years of labor and pains in correct¬ 
ing misprints, and improving the orthography, capital letters, words in italics, 
punctuation, and headings of columns and chapters. But the American Bible 
Society was induced, by a majority of its managers, to cancel the revised edition 
thus prepared (1852); on the ground of alleged want of constitutional authority, 
and popular dissatisfaction with a number of the changes made, especially in the 
headings of chapters, as substituting Messiah and Sion , in the Old Testament, for 
Christ and Church.'' 

f For what follows see Dr. Schaff’s Revision of the New Testament. 


DEMAND FOR A MORE THOROUGH REVISION. 


265 

3. That in the above resolutions we do not contemplate any new translation of 
the Bible, or any alteration of the language, except where, in the judgment of 
the most competent scholars, such change is necessary. 

4. That in such necessary changes, the style of the language employed in the 
existing version be closely followed. 

5. That it is desirable that Convocation should nominate a body of its own 
members to undertake the work of revision, who shall be at liberty to invite the 
co-operation of any eminent for scholarship, to whatever nation or religious body 
they may belong. 

The report was accepted unanimously by the upper House, and by 
a great majority of the Lower House. A committee was also 
appointed, consisting of eight bishops and eight presbyters, to take the 
necessary steps for carrying out the resolutions. At their first meet¬ 
ing, two companies of revisers were appointed from among the princi¬ 
pal dignitaries of the English Church to have charge respectively of 
the revision of the Old and New Testaments. Distinguished scholars 
*)f the English Church, of the Catholic Church, and of the Protestant 
nonconformist bodies in England, were invited to join in the work. 

The committee also, at the same session, adopted the following 
rules, to govern both companies in the execution of the work : 

“ 1. To introduce as few alterations as possible into the text of the Authorized 
Version, consistently with faithfulness. 

“ 2. To limit as far as possible, the expression of such alterations to the lan¬ 
guage of the Authorized and earlier English Versions. 

“ 3. Each company to go twice over the portion to be revised, once provi¬ 
sionally, the second time finally, and on principles of voting as hereinafter is pro¬ 
vided. 

“4. That the text to be adopted be that for which the evidence is decidedly 
preponderating ; and that when the text so adopted differs from that from which 
the Authorized Version was made, the alteration be indicated in the margin. 

“ 5. To make or retain no change in the text on the second final revision by 
each company, except two-thirds of those present approve of the same, but on 
the first revision to decide by simple majorities. 

“6. In every case of proposed alteration that may have given rise to discus¬ 
sion, to‘defer the voting thereupon till the next meeting, whensoever the same 
shall be required by one-third of those present at the meeting, such intended vote 
to be announced in the notice for the next meeting. 

“7. To revise the headings of chapters and pages, paragraphs, italics, and 
punctuation. 

“8. To refer, on the part of each company, when considered desirable, to 
divines, scholars, and literary men, whether at home or abroad, for their 
opinions.” 

The fifth resolution of the Convocation of Canterbury empowered 
the committee “ to invite the co-operation of any eminent for scholar¬ 
ship, to whatever nation or religious body they may belong.” In 


266 


ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATION. 


accordance with this resolution, Dr. Joseph Angus, President of Re¬ 
gent’s Park College, London, and one of the English revisers, was 
deputed to proceed to America for the purpose of securing the aid of 
American scholars in the prosecution of the work. Dr. Angus arrived 
in New York in August, 1870. At his request, Dr. Philip Schaff pre¬ 
pared a draft of rules for co-operation and a list of names of Biblical 
scholars who would, in his judgment, best represent the different 
denominations and literary institutions of the United States. The 
suggestions were submitted to the British committee, and substantially 
approved. Dr. Schaff was empowered to select and invite scholars, 
from non-Episcopal churches ; and afterward, when the Bishops of 
the American Episcopal Church declined to nominate members, to fill 
out the list of Episcopal scholars. 

In May, 1881, eleven years after the adoption of the resolution by 
the Convocation of Canterbury approving a revision of the English 
Scriptures, the New Testament was given to the public. 


APPENDIX. 


I. Specimens of the early English Versions. 

II. The Immaculate Conception. 

III. The Soldiers’ Bible. 

Note.— The Specimens of the early Versions in Part I. are given without 
change, except in the orthography, which is modernized. In Part II. a few addi¬ 
tional specimens are given, as a matter of curiosity, with the original spelling 
retained. These are copied from very early editions ; with the exception of the 
specimens of Tyndale’s New Testament, which are from Offor’s reprint of the 
first edition, 1526, and of Coverdale’s Bible, which are taken from Bagster s 
modern reprint. 



268 


APPENDIX I. 


APPENDIX I. 


SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH VERSIONS. 


WICKLIFFE. 


PART I. 

MATTHEW’S (TYNDALE). 


Exodus xx. 1-17. 

And the Lord spake all these words : 
I am thy Lord God, that led thee out of 
the land of Egypt, from the house of 
servage. Thou shalt not have alien 
gods before me. Thou shalt not make 
to thee a graven image, neither any like¬ 
ness of thing which is in heaven above, 
and which is in earth beneath, neither 
of the things, that be in waters under 
earth ; thou shalt not herye [honor] tho; 
neither thou shalt worship ; lor I am thy 
Lord God, a strong jealous lover ; and 
I visit the wickedness of faders into the 
third and the fourth generation of them 
that haten me, and I do mercy in to a 
thousand to them that loven me and 
keep mine hests. Thou shalt not take 
in vain the name of thy Lord God, for 
the Lord shall not have him guiltless 
that takeih in vain the name of his 
Lord God. Have thou mind that thou 
hallow the day of the sabbat ; in six 
days thou shalt work and shalt do all thy 
works ; forsooth in the seventh day is 
the sabbat of thy Lord God ; thou shalt 
not do any work, thou, and thy son, and 
thy daughter, and thy servant, and thine 
handmaid, thy work beast, and the 
comeling [stranger] that is witnin thy 
gates ; for in six days God made heaven 
and earth, the sea, and all things that 


Exodus xx. 1-17. 

And God spake all these words and 
said : I am the Lord thy God, which 
have brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt, and out of the house of bondage. 
Thou shalt have none other Gods in my 
sight. Thou shalt make thee no graven 
image, neither any similitude that is in 
heaven above, either in the earth be¬ 
neath, or in the water that is beneath 
the earth. See that thou neither bow 
thyself unto them neither serve them : 
for I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God, and visit the sin of the fathers 
upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate me, 
and yet show mercy unto thousands 
among them that love me and keep my 
commandments. 

Thou shalt not take the name of the 
Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will 
not hold him guiltless that taketh his 
name in vain. Remember the Sabbath 
day that thou sanctify it. Six days 
mayst thou labor and do all that thou 
hast to do : but the seventh day is the 
Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou 
shalt do no manner work ; neither thou 
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, neither 
thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, 
neither thy cattle, neither yet the 
stranger that is within thy gates. For 
in six days the Lord made both heaven 


GENEVAN. Exodus xx. 1--17. 

Then God spake all these words, saying, 

2. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, 
out of the house of bondage. 

3. Thou shalt have none other gods before me. 

4. Thou shalt make thee no graven image, neither any similitude [of things] 
that are in heaven above, neither tljat are in the earth beneath, nor that are in 
the waters under the earth. 

5. Thou shalt not bow down to them, neither serve them ; for I am the Lord 
thy God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, 
upon the third [generation] and upon the fourth of them that hate me ; 

6. And showing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my 
commandments. 

7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord 
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

9. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work. 

10. But the seventh day [is] the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; [in it] thou shalt 
not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy 
maid, nor thy beast, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. 

11. For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all 


269 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 


COVERDALE. 

Exodus xx. 1-17. 

And the Lord spake all these words, 
and said : I am the Lord thy God, which 
have- brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt from the house of bondage. 

Thou shalt have none other Gods in 
my sight. Thou shalt make thee no 
graven image, nor any similitude, 
neither of it that is above in heaven, nor 
of it that is beneath upon earth, neither 
of it that is in the water under the earth. 
Worship them not, and serve them not : 
for I the Lord thy God am a jealous 
God, visiting the sin of the fathers upon 
the children, unto the third and fourth 
generation of them that hate me ; and 
do mercy upon many thousands that 
love me and keep my commandments. 

Thou shalt not take the name of the 
Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord 
shall not hold him unguilty that taketh 
his name in vain. 

Remember the Sabbath day that thou 
sanctify it. Six days shalt thou labor 
and do all thy work : But upon the sev¬ 
enth day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy 
God ; thou shalt do no manner of work 
in it, neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy 
daughter, nor thy servant, nor thy maid, 
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is 
■within thy gates. For in six days the 
Lord made heaven and earth, and the 
sea and all that th’erein is, and rested 


CRANMER. 

Exodus xx. 1-17. 

And God spake all these words and 
said : I am the Lord thy God, which 
have brought thee out of the land of 
Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 
Thou, shalt have none other Gods in my 
sight. Thou shalt make thee no graven 
image, neither any similitude that is in 
heaven above, either in the earth be¬ 
neath, or in the waters under the earth. 
Thou shalt not worship them, neither 
serve them ; for I the Lord thy God am 
a jealous God, and visit the sin of the 
fathers upon the children unto the third 
and fourth generation of them that hate 
me ; and show mercy unto thousands in 
them that love me .and keep my com¬ 
mandments. 

Thou shalt not take the name of the 
Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will 
not hold him guiltless that taketh his 
name in vain. Remember the Sabbath 
day that thou sanctify it. Six days shalt 
thou labor and do all that thou hast to 
do ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath 
of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt do 
no manner of work, thou, and thy son, 
and thy daughter, thy man servant, and 
thy maid servant, thy cattle, and the 
stranger that is within thy gates. For 
in six days the Lord made heaven and 
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, 


BISPIOPS’. Exodus xx. 1-17. 


And God spake all these words, and said, ...... 

2. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, 

out of the house of bondage. 

a Thou shalt have none other Gods in my sight. 

4 Thou shalt make thee no graven image, neither the likeness of anything that 
is in heaven above, either in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth. 

C Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them ; for I the Lord thy God 
am a jealous God, and visit the sin of the fathers upon the children, unto the 

third and fourth generation of them that hate me ; _ 

6 . And show mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my com- 

ma 7 nd Tho n u S shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain : for the Lord will 
not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. . 

8 Remember the Sabbath day, that thou sanctify it. 
o. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all that thou hast to do. 

10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God , in it th° u shall 
do no manner of work, thou and thy son and thy daughter thy man servant, 
thy maid servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that » ™hm thy gates; , 

11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and alt tnat in 


270 APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 

WICKLIFFE. MATTHEW’S (TYNDALE). 

ben in tho, and rested in the seventh and earth, and the sea, and all that in 
day ; herefor the Lord blessed the day them is, and rested the seventh day : 
of the sabbat and hallowed it. Honor wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
thy fader and thy moder, that thou be day and hallowed it. Honor thy father 
long living on the lond, which the Lord and thy mother, that thy days may be 
thy God shall give to thee. Thou shalt long in the land which the Lord thy God 
not slay. Thou shalt do no lechery, giveth thee. 

Thou shalt do no theft. Thou shalt not Thou shalt not kill, 
speak false witnessing against thy neigh- Thou shalt not break wedlock, 

bor. Thou shalt not covet the house of Thou shalt not steal, 

thy neighbor, neither thou shalt desire Thou shalt bear no false witness 
his wife, not servant, not handmaid, not against thy neighbor, 
ox, not ass, neither all things than ben Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s 
his. house ; neither shalt covet thy neigh¬ 

bor’s wife, his man servant, his maid, 
his ox, his ass, or aught that is his. 

GENEVAN. 

that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; therefore the Lord blessed the Sab¬ 
bath day, and hallowed it. 

12. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged upon 
the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 

13. Thou shalt not kill. 

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

15. Thou shalt not steal. 

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 

17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, neither shalt thou covet thy 
neighbor’s wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, 
neither anything that is thy neighbor’s. 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 


271 


COVERDALE. 

upon the seventh day ; therefore the 
Lord blessed the seventh day and hal¬ 
lowed it. 

Honor thy father and thy mother, 
that thou mayest live long in the land, 
which the Lord thy God shall give thee. 

Thou shalt not kill. 

Thou shalt not break wedlock. 

Thou shalt not steal. 

Thou shalt bear no false witness 
against thy neighbor. 

Thou shalt not lust after thy neigh¬ 
bor’s house. Thou shalt not lust after 
thy neighbor’s wife, nor his servant, nor 
his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor all 
that thy neighbor hath. 


CRANMER. 

and rested the seventh day, wherefore 
the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and 
hallowed it. 

Honor thy father and thy mother, that 
thy days may be long in the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee. 

Thou shalt not kill. 

Thou shalt not break wedlock. 

Thou shalt not steal. 

Thou shalt not bear false witness 
against thy neighbor. 

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s 
house : neither shalt thou covet thy 
neighbor’s wife, or his man servant, or 
his maid, or his ox, or his ass, or what¬ 
soever thy neighbor hath. 


BISHOPS’. 

them is, and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, 
and hallowed it. 

12. Honor thy father and thy mother ; that thy days may be long in the land 
which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 

13. Thou shalt not kill. 

14. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 

15. Thou shalt not steal. 

16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 

17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, neither shalt thou covet thy 
neighbor’s wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor 
anything that is thy neighbor’s. 


2?2 APPENDIX I. 

WICKLIFFE. 

Luke vii. 36-50. 

But one of the Pharisees prayed 
Jesus, that he should eat with him. And 
he entered into the house of the Phari¬ 
see, and sat at the meat. And lo ! a 
sinful woman, that was in the city, as 
she knew that Jesus sat at the meat in 
the house of the Pharisee, she brought 
an alabaster box of ointment ; and she 
stood behind besides his feet, and began 
to moist his feet with tears, and wiped 
with the hairs of her head, and kissed 
his feet, and anointed with ointment. 
And the Pharisee seeing, that had clepid 
[called, bidden] him, said within him¬ 
self, saying, If this were a prophet, he 
should wite [know] who and what man¬ 
ner woman it were that toucheth him, 
for she is a sinful woman. And Jesus 
answered and said to him, Simon, I have 
something to say to thee. And he said, 
Master, say thou. And he answered ; 
Two debtors were to one loaner : and 
one owed five hundred pence, and the 
other fifty ; but when they hadden not 
whereof they shoulden geld [pay], he 
forgave to both. Who then loveth him 
more ? Simon answered and said, I 
guess, that he to whom he forgave more. 
And he answered to him, Thou hast 
deemed rightly. And he turned to the 
woman, and said to Simon, Seest thou 
this woman ? I entered into thine 
house, thou gave no water to my feet ; 
but this hath moisted my feet with tears, 


(CONTINUED.) 

TYNDALE. 

Luke vii. 36-50. 

And one of the Pharisees desired him 
that he would eat with him. And he 
came into the Pharisee’s house and sat 
down to meat. And behold a woman 
in that city which was a sinner, as soon 
as she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the 
Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabas¬ 
ter box of ointment, and she stood at his 
feet behind him weeping, and began to 
wash his feet with tears, and did wipe 
them with the hairs of her head, and 
kissed his feet, and anointed them with 
ointment. 

When the Pharisee which bade him 
to his house, saw that, he spake within 
himself, saying : If this man were a pro¬ 
phet, he Would surely have known who 
and what manner woman this is which 
toucheth him, for she is a sinner. And 
Jesus answered and said unto him : 
Simon, I have somewhat to say unto 
thee. And he said : Master, say on. 
There was a certain lender which had 
two debtors ; the one owed five hundred 
pence, and the other fifty. When they 
had nothing to pay, he forgave them 
both. Which of them, tell me, will love 
him most? Simon answered and said : 

I suppose that he to whom he forgave 
most. And he said unto him, Thou 
hast truly judged. 

And he turned to the woman, and said 
unto Simon : Seest thou this woman ? 
I entered into thy house, and thou gavest 
me no water to my feet ; but she hath 


GENEVAN. Luke vii. 36-50. 

36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he 
went into the Pharisees house, and sat down at table. 

37. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that 
Jesus sat at table in the Pharisees house, she brought a box of ointment : 

38. And she stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet 
with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and 
anointed them with the ointment. 

39. Now when the Pharisee which bade him, saw it, he spake within himself 
saying, if this man were a prophet, he would surely have known who and what 
manner of woman this is which toucheth him, for she is a sinner. 

40. And Jesus answered and said unto him : Simon, I have somewhat to sav 
unto thee. And he said, Master, say on. 

41. There was a certain lender which had two debtors : the one owed five hun¬ 
dred pence, and the other fifty. 

42. When they had nothing to pay, he forgave them both. Which of them 
therefore, tell [me] will love him most ? 

43- Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most 
And he said unto him : Thou hast truly judged. 

44 - Then he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this 

woman . 1 entered into thine house, and thou gavest me no water to my feet ; 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 273 


COVERDALE. 

Luke vii. 36-50. 

And one of the Pharisees desired him 
that he would eat with him. And he 
went into the Pharisees house, and sat 
him down at the table. And behold, 
there was in the city a woman which was 
a sinner. When she knew that Jesus sat 
at the table in the Pharisees house, she 
brought a box with ointment, and stood 
behind at his feet and wept, and began 
to water his feet with tears, and to dry 
them with the hairs of her head, and 
kissed his feet, and anointed them with 
ointment. 

But when the Pharisee which had 
called him saw that, he spake within 
himself and said : If this man were a 
prophet, he would know who and what 
manner of woman this is that toucheth 
him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus 
answered and said unto him : Simon, I 
have somewhat to say unto thee. He 
said : Master, say on. A certain lender 
had two debtors, the one owed five hun¬ 
dred pence, the other fifty : but when 
they had nothing to pay, he forgave them 
both. Tell me which of them will love 
him most? Simon answered and said : 
He, I suppose, to whom he forgave 
most. Then said he unto him : Thou 
hast judged right. 

And he turned him to the woman, and 
said unto Simon : Seest thou this 
woman ? I am come into thine house, 
thou hast given me no water unto my 


CRANMER. 

Luke vii. 36-50. 

And one of the Pharisees desired him 
that he would eat with him. And he 
went into the Pharisees house, and sat 
down to meat. And behold a woman in 
that city (which was a sinner) as soon as 
she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the 
Pharisees house, she brought an ala¬ 
baster box of ointment, and stood at his 
feet behind him weeping, and began to 
wash his feet with tears, and did wipe 
them with the hairs of her head, and 
kissed his feet, and anointed them with 
the ointment. When the Pharisee which 
had bidden him saw, he spake within 
himself, saying: If this man were a 
prophet, he would surely know who and 
what manner of woman this is that 
touched him, for she is a sinner. And 
Jesus answered and said unto him : 
Simon, I have somewhat to say unto 
thee. And he said, Master, say on. 
There was a certain lender which had 
two debtors, the one owed five hundred 
pence, and the other fifty. When they 
had nothing to pay, he forgave them 
both. Tell me therefore, which of them 
will love him most ? Simon answered 
and said : I suppose that he to whom 
he forgave most. And he said unto 
him : Thou hast truly judged. 

And he turned to the woman, and said 
unto Simon : Seest thou this woman ? 
I entered into thy house, thou gavest me 
no water for my feet ; but she hath 


BISHOPS’. Luke vii. 36-50. 

36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he 
went into the Pharisees house and sat down to meat. 

37. And behold, a woman in that city, which was a sinner, when she knew that 
Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisees house, she brought an alabaster box of oint¬ 
ment : 

38. And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with 
tears, and did wipe them clean with the hairs of her head, and all to kissed his 
feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 

39. When the Pharisee which had bidden him, saw it, he spake within himself, 
saying • If this man were a prophet, he would surely know who and what manner 
of woman is this that toucheth him ; for she is a sinner. 

40. And Jesus answering said unto him : Simon, I have somewhat to say unto 
thee. And he saith, Master, say on. 

41. There was a certain lender which had two debtors ; the one owed five hun¬ 
dred pence, and the other fifty. 

42. When they had nothing to pay, he forgave them both. Tell me, therefore, 
which of them will love him most ? 

* 43. Simon answered and said : I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. 
And he said unto him, Thou hast truly judged. 

44. And he turned to the woman and said unto Simon : Seest thou this 


2/4 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 


WICKLIFFE. 

and wiped with her hairs. Thou hast 
not given to me a kiss ; but this, sithen 
she entered, ceased not to kiss my feet. 
Thou anointedst not mine head with oil ; 
but this anointed my feet with ointment. 
For the which thing I say to thee, many 
sins ben forgiven to her, for she hath 
loved much ; and to whom is less for¬ 
given, he loveth less. And Jesus said 
to her, Thy sins be forgiven to thee. 
And they that satten together at the 
meat, begun to say within themself, Who 
is this that forgiveth sins ? But he said 
to the woman, Thy faith hath made thee 
safe ; go thou in peace. 


TYNDALE. 

washed my feet with tears, and wiped 
them with the hairs of her head. Thou 
gavest me no kiss : but she, since the 
time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss 
my feet. Mine head with oil thou didst 
not anoint : and she hath anointed my 
feet with ointment. Wherefore I say 
unto thee ; Many sins are forgiven her, 
because she loved much. To whom less 
is forgiven, the same doth less love. 

And he said unto her, Thy sins are 
forgiven thee. And they that sat at 
meat with him, began to say within 
themselves : Who is this which forgiveth 
sins also ? And he said to the woman : 
Thy faith hath saved thee ; Go in peace. 


GENEVAN. 

but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her 
head. 

45. Thou gavest me no kiss : but she, since the time I came in, hath not ceased 
to kiss my feet. 

46. Mine head with oil thou didst not anoint : but she hath anointed my feet 
with ointment. 

47. Wherefore I say unto thee : Many sins are forgiven her ; for she loved 
much. To whom a little is forgiven, he doth love a little. 

48. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven thee. 

49. And they that sat at table with him, began to say within themselves : Who 
is this that even forgiveth sins ? 

50. And he said to the woman ; Thy faith hath saved thee : go in peace. 


2 7S 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 

COVERDALE. CRANMER. 

feet ; but she hath watered my feet with washed my feet with tears, and wiped 
tears, and dried them with the hairs of them with the hairs of her head Thou 
her head. Thou hast given me no kiss, gavest me no kiss : but she, since the 
but she, since the time she came in, hath time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss 
not ceased to kiss my feet. Thou hast my feet. Mine head with oil thou didst 
not anointed my head with oil, but she not anoint : but she hath anointed my 
hath anointed my head with ointment, feet with ointment. Wherefore I say 
Therefore I say unto thee : Many sins unto thee : many sins are forgiven her, 
are forgiven her, for she hath loved for she loved much. To whom less is 
much. But unto whom less is forgiven, forgiven, the same doth less love. And 
the same loveth the less. he said unto her : thy sins are forgiven 

And he said unto her : Thy sins are thee. And they that sat at meat-with 
forgiven thee. Then they that sat at the him, began to say within themselves, 
table with him, began to say within Who is this which forgiveth sins also ? 
themselves : What is he this, thatforgiv- And he said to the woman : Thy faith 
eth sins also ? But he said unto the hath saved thee : Go in peace, 
woman : Thy faith hath saved thee, Go 
thy vTay in peace. 

BISHOPS’. 

woman ? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but 
she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 

45. Thou gavest me no kiss ; but this woman, since the time I came in, hath 
not ceased to kiss my feet. 

46. Mine head with oil thou didst not anoint ; but this woman hath anointed 
my feet with ointment. 

47. Wherefore I say unto thee, many sins are forgiven her, for she loved 
much ; to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. 

48. And he said unto her, thy sins are forgiven thee. 

49. And they that sat at meat with him, began to say within themselves, who 
is this that forgiveth sins also ? 

50. And he said to the woman : Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace. 





2/6 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 


TYNDALE. 

Matt, xviii. 15. Moreover if thy 
brother trespass against thee, go and tell 
him his fault between him and thee 
alone. If he hear thee, thou hast won 
thy brother ; but if he hear thee not, 
then take with thee one or two, that in 
the mouth of two or three witnesses, all 
sayings may stand. If he hear not 
them, tell it unto the congregation ; if 
he hear not the Congregation, take him 
as an heathen man and as a publican. 

Acts ii. 47. And the Lord added to 
the congregation daily them that should 
be saved. 

Acts viii. 1. At that time was there 
a great persecution against the congre¬ 
gation which was at Jerusalem. 

Acts xi. 22. Tidings of this came 
unto the ears of the congregation which 
was in Jerusalem. 26. It chanced that 
a whole year they had their conversation 
with the congregation there. 

Acts xii. 1. In that time Herod the 
King laid hands on certain of the con¬ 
gregation to vex them. 5. But prayer 
was made without ceasing of the congre¬ 
gation unto God for him. 

Acts xiii. 1. There were at Antioch 
in the congregation prophets and doc¬ 
tors. 

Acts xiv. 23. And when they had 
ordained them seniors* by election in 
every congregation. 

1 Cor. iv. 17. Even as I teach every 
where, in all congregations. 

Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come unto 
the mount Sion, and to the city of the 
living God, the celestial Jerusalem, and 
to an innumerable sight of angels, and 
unto the congregation of the first born 
sons. 

* Afterwards, elders. 


COVERDALE. 

Matt, xviii. 15. If thy brother trespass 
against thee, go and tell him his fault 
between thee and him alone. If he hear 
thee, thou hast won thy brother. But if 
he hear thee not, then take yet with thee 
one or two, that in the mouth of two or 
three witnesses, every matter may be 
stablished. If he hear not them, tell 
it unto the congregation. If he hear not 
the congregation, hold him as an heath¬ 
en and publican. 

Acts ii. 47. And the Lord added to 
the congregation daily such as should be 
saved. 

Acts viii. 1. At the same time, there 
was a great persecution over the congre¬ 
gation at Jerusalem. 

Acts xi. 22. This tidings of* them 
came to the ears of the congregation at 
Jerusalem. 26. It chanced that a whole 
year they were there conversant together 
in the congregation. 

Acts xii. 1. At the same time laid 
King Herod hands upon certain of the 
congregation to vex them. 5. But prayer 
was made without ceasing of the congre¬ 
gation, unto God for him. 

Acts xiii. 1. There were at Antioch 
in the congregation, prophets and 
teachers. 

Acts xiv. 23. And when they had 
ordained them elders by election, through 
all the congregations. 

1 Cor. iv. 17. Even as I teach every 
where, in all congregations. 

Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come to the 
mount Sion, and to the city of the living 
God, to the celestial Jerusalem, and to 
the multitude of many thousand angels, 
and unto the congregation of the first 
born. 


GENEVAN. 

Matt, xviii. 15. Moreover, if thy brother trespass against thee, go and*tell him 
his fault between him and thee alone. If he hear thee, thou hast won thy 
brother. 

16. But if he hear thee not, then take yet with thee one or two ; that by the 
mouth of two or three witnesses, ail the matter may be confirmed. 

17. And if he will not vouchsafe to hear them, tell it unto the congregation. 
And if he refuse to hear the congregation, let him be unto thee as an heathen 
man, and as a publican. 

Acts ii. 47. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. 

Acts viii. 1. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the congre¬ 
gation which was at Jerusalem. 

Acts xi. 22. Tidings of these things came unto the ears of the congregation 
which was in Jerusalem. 

26. And it chanced that a whole year they had their conversation with the 
church there. 


APPENDIX I. 
CRANMER. 

Matt, xviii. 15. Moreover, if thy brother 
trespass against thee, go and tell him 
his fault between him and thee alone. 
If he hear thee thou hast won thy 
brother. But if he hear thee not, then 
take yet with thee one or two, that in the 
mouth of two or three witnesses, every 
matter may be stablished. If he hear 
not them, tell it unto the congregation. 
If he hear not the congregation, let him 
be to thee as an heathen man and as 
a publican. 

Acts ii. 47. And the Lord added to 
the congregation daily such as should 
be saved. 

Acts viii. 1. And at that time, there 
was a great persecution against the con¬ 
gregation which was at Jerusalem. 

Acts xi. 22. Tidings of these things 
came unto the ears of the congregation 
which was in Jerusalem. 26. And it 
chanced that a whole year they had their 
conversation with the congregation 
there. 

Acts xii. 1. At the same time Herod 
the King stretched forth his hands to 
vex certain of the congregation. 5. But 
prayer was made without ceasing of the 
congregation unto God for him. 

Acts xiii. 1. There were in the con¬ 
gregation that is at Antioch, certain 
prophets and teachers. 

Acts xiv. 23. And when they had 
ordained them elders by election in every 
congregation. 

1 Cor. iv. 17. Even as I teach every 
where, in all congregations. 

Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come unto 
the mount Sion, and to the city of the 
living God, the celestial Jerusalem ; and 
to an innumerable sight of angels and 
unto the congregation of the first born 
sons. 


(CONTINUED.) 277 

BISHOPS’. 

Matt, xviii. 15. Moreover, if thy 
brother shall trespass against thee, go 
and tell him his fault between thee and 
him alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou 
hast won thy brother. 

16. But if he will not hear thee, then 
take yet with thee one or two ; that in 
the mouth of two or three witnesses, 
every word may be stablished. 

17. If he will not hear them, tell it 
unto the church : if he will not hear the 
church, let him be unto thee as an heath¬ 
en man and a publican. 

Acts ii. 47. And the Lord added to 
the church daily such as should be saved. 

Acts viii. 1. And at that time there 
was a great persecution against the 
church which was at Jerusalem. 

Acts xi. 22. Then tidings of these 
things came unto the ears of the church 
which was in Jerusalem. 26. And it 
came to pass that a whole year they had 
their conversation with the church there. 

Acts xii. 1. At the same time Herod 
the King stretched forth his hands to vex 
certain of the church. 5. But prayer 
was made without ceasing of the church 
unto God for him. 

Acts xiii. 1. There was also in the 
church that was at Antioch, certain pro¬ 
phets and teachers. 

Acts xiv. 23. And when they had 
ordained them elders by election in 
every church. 

1 Cor. iv. 17. As I teach every where 
in all churches. 

Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come unto 
the mount Sion, and to the city of the 
living God, the celestial Jerusalem, and 
to an innumerable company of angels. 

23. And unto the congregation of the 
first born. 


GENEVAN. 

Acts xii. 1. In that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex cer¬ 
tain of the congregation. ' 

5. But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. 

Acts xiii. 1. There were in the congregation that was at Antioch, certain pro¬ 
phets and teachers. 

Acts xiv. 23. And when they had ordained them elders by election in every 
church. 

1 Cor. iv. 17. Even as I teach every where in all congregations. 

Heb. xii. 22. But ye are come unto the mount Sion, and to the city of the 
living God, the celestial Jerusalem ; and to the company of innumerable angels, 

23. And to the congregation of the first born sons. 


27 8 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 


PART II. 

PSALM Xix. 

MATTHEW’S. BISHOPS’. 

The very heauens declare the glory of i. The heauens declare the glorie of 
God and the very firmament sheweth his God: and the firmament sheweth his 
handy worcke. handle woorke. 

One daye telleth another,and one nyght 2. A day occasioneth talke thereof 
certifyeth another. There is neytner vnto a day : & a nyght teacheth knovvl- 
speach ner language, but their voices edge vnto a nyght. 

are hard among them.* 3- No language, no woordes, no voyce 

Their sounde is gone oute into all of iheyrs is fiearde : yet theyre sounde* 
landes, and their wordes into the endes of goeth into al landes, and theyr woordes 
the worlde. In them hath he sette a into the endes of the worlde. 
tabernacle for the Sunne, whych com- 4. In them he hath sette a tabernacle 
meth forthe as a brydegrome out of his for the sunne, whych commeth foorth as 
chamber, and reioyceth as a giaunt to a brydegrome out of his chamber, and 
runne his course. reioyceth as a giant to runne his course. 

It goeth forth from the one ende of the 5. His setting foorth is from the 
heauen,and runneth aboute vnto the same vtmost part of heauen, & his circuite 
ende agayne,and there maye no man hyde vnto the vtmost part therof : and there 
hymselfe from the heate therof. The is nothing hid from his heate. 
lawe of the Lorde is a perfecte lawe it 6. The law of God is perfect, conuert- 
quickeneth the soule. ing the soule : the testimonie of God is 

The testimonye of the Lorde is true, sure, and geueth wysdome vnto the sim- 
and geueth wisdome euen vnto babes. pie. 

The statutes of the Lord are ryght, 7. The statutes of god are ryght, and 
and reioyse the hert: the commaunde- reioyce the hart: the commaundement of 
ment of the lord is pure, and geueth lyght god is pure,and geueth lightvntotheeyes. 
vnto the eyes. 8. The feare of god is sincere, and en- 

The feare of the Lorde is cleane, and dureth for euer : the iudgementes of god 
endureth for euer : the iudgementes of are trueth, they be iust in al pointes. 
the Lord are true and ryghtuous alto- 9. They are more to be desired then 
gether. More pleasaunt are they then golde, yea then muche fine golde : they 
golde, yea then much fyne golde : sweter are also sweeter then hony, and the hony 
then hony and the hony combe. These combe. 

thy seruaunt kepeth, & for kepynge of 10. Moreover, by them thy seruant is 
them there is great reward. wel aduertised : and in kcping of them 

* Marg , or rather , there is no voyce amonge there a great lewarde. 
them. * v. 3, marg. rule, or line. 

GENEVAN. 

1. The heauens declare the glorie of God, & the firmament sheweth the worke 
of his hands. 

2. Day vnto day vttereth the same, and night vnto night teacheth knowledge. 

3. [There is] no speach nor language, [where] their voyce is not heard. 

4. Their line is gone forth through all the earth, and their wordes into the endes 
of the world : in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the sunne. 

5. Which commeth foorth as a bridegrome out of his chamber,* [and] reioyceth 

like a mightie man to runne [his] race. , 

6. His going out [is] from the ende of the heauen, and his compasse [is] vnto 
the endes of the same, and none is hid from the heate thereof. 

7. The Lawe of the Lorde is perfit, conuerting the soule : the testimonie of the 
Lorde is sure, and giueth wisedorn vnto the simple. 

8 . The statutes of the Lorde [are] right and reioyce the heart: the commande- 
ment of the Lord [is] pure, and giueth light vnto the eyes. 

9. The feare of the Lorde [is] cleane, and indureth for euer ; the iudgements of 
the Lorde [are] trueth : they are righteous all together. 

10. And more to be desired then golde, yea, then much fine golde : sweeter 
also then honie and the honie combe. 

11. Moreouer by them [is] thy seruant made circumspect, [and] in keeping of 
them there [is] great reward. 


* v. 5, marg or vaile. 


2/9 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 

* MATTHEW’S. BISHOPS’. 

Who can tell how oft he offendeth : n. Who can knowe his owne errours: 
Oh dense thoil me from my secrete Oh, cleanse thou me from those I am 
fautes, Kepe thy seruaunt also from not priuie of. 

presumptuous synnes, lest they get the 12. Kepe thy seruant also from pre¬ 
dominion ouer me : so shall I be vnde sumptuous {sinnes) let them not raigne 
fyled and innocent from the greate of- ouer me : so I shalbe perfect & voyde 
fence. from al heynous offence. 

Yea the words of my mouth and the 13. Let the woordes of my mouth and 
meditacion of my herte shalbe accept- the meditacion of my hart be accepta- 
able vnto the, O Lorde, my helper and ble in thy sight, O God, my strength 
my redemer. and my redeemer. 

GENEVAN. 

12. Who can vnderstand [his] faults ; dense me from secrete [faultes]. 

13. Keepe thy seruant also from presumptuous sinnes : let them not reigne 
ouer me : so shall I bee vpright, & made cleane from much wickednesse. 

14. Let the wordes of my mouth, and the meditation of mine heart be accept¬ 
able in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, & my redeemer. 




28 o 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED). 

*4 

DANIEL vii. 9. 

Matthew’s : I loked tyl the seates were prepared and tyll.the olde aged sat 
hym doune. 

CovtRDALE and Cranmer the same. 

Genevan : I beheld, till the thrones were set vp, & the Ancient of dayes did 
sit. 

Bishops’, same as Genevan. 

THE LORD’S PRAYER. 

IN MATTHEW vi. 

TYNDALE. COVERDALE. 

O oure father which arte in heven,. O oure father which art in heauen. 
halowed be thy name. Let thy king- halowed be thy name. Thy kyngdome 
dom come. Thy wvll be fulfilled as well come. Thy wyll be fulfilled vpon earth 
in erth, as hit ys in heven. Geve vs this as it is in heauen. Geue us this daye 
daye oure dayly breade. And forgeve oure dayly bred. And forgeue us oure 
vs oure treaspases, even as we forgeve dett=s, as we also forgeve oure detters. 
them which treaspas vs. Leede vs not And lede vs not in to temptacion : but 
into temptacion, but delyvre vs from delyuer vs from euell. For thyne is the 
y veil, Amen. kyngdome, and the power, and the glorye 

for euer. Amen. 

BISHOPS’. 

9. O our father which art in heauen, halowed be thy name. 

10. Let thy kyngdome comme. Thy wyl be donne, as wel in earth, as it is in 
heauen. 

11. Geue vs this day our dayly bread. 

12. And forgeue vs our dettes, as we forgeue our detters. 

13. And leade vs not into temptation, but delyuer vs from euyl : for thyne is 
the kyngdome, and the power, and the glorie, for euer. Amen, 

In Luke xi. 2-4. 

TYNDALE. MATTHEW’S. (N. T. Tyndale’s.) 

Oure father which arte in heven, hal- O oure father whiche arte in heauen, 
owed be thy name. Lett thy kyngdome ha’owed be thy name. Thy kyngedome 
come. Thy will be fulfillet even in erth come. They will be fulfylled euen in 
as it is in heven. Oure davly breed geve earthe as it is in heauen. Geue vs our 
vs this day. And forgeve vs oure daylye breade euermore. And forgeue 
synnes : for even we forgeve every man vs oure synnes : for euen we forgeue 
that traspaseth vs, and ledde vs not into euery man that trespasseth vs. And 
temptacion, Butt deliver vs from evyll. ledde vs not into temptacyon. But 
^ m g n deliuer vs from euyll. 

COVERDALE. CRANMER. 

O oure father which art in heauen, O our father whiche art in heauen 
halowed be thy name. Thy kyngdome halowed by thy name. Thy kyngdome 
come. Thy wil be fulfilled vpon earth come. Thy will bee fulfilled, euen in 
as it is in heauen. Geue vs this daye earth also as it is in heauen. Our dayly 
oure daylie bred. And forgeue vs oure breade geue vs this day, and forgeue vs 
synnes, for we also forgeue all them oure synnes: For euen we forgeue euery 
that are detters vnto vs. And lede vs manne that trespaseth vs. And leade 
not in to temptacion, but delyuer vs from vs not into temptacion. But delyuer vs 
euell. from euyll. 

BISHOPS’. 

2. O our father whiche art in heauen, halowed be thy name. Thy kyngdome 
comme. Thy wyl be donne, euen in earth also as it is in heauen. 

3. Our dayly bread geue vs this day. 

4. And forgeue vs our sinnes : for euen we forgeue euery man that trespasseth 
vs. And lead vs not into temptation, but deliuer vs from the euyl. 


APPENDIX I. (CONTINUED.) 
i CORINTHIANS xiii. 1-3. 


28l 


TYNDALE. 

Though I speake with the tonges of men 
and angels, and yet had no love, I were 
even as soundynge brasse : and as a 
tynklynge Cynball, and though I coulde 
prophesy, and vnderstode all secretes,and 
all knowledge : yee, if I had all fayth so 
that I coulde move mountayns oute of 
there places, and yet had no love, I were 
nothynge. And though I bestowed all 
my gooddes to fede the poore, and 
though I gave my body even that I 
burned, & yet have no love, it profeteth 
me nothynge. 

GENEVAN. 

1. Though I speake with the tongues of 
men and Angels, and haue not loue, I am 
(as) sounding brasse, or a tinkling cym- 
ball. 

2. And though I had the (gift) of pro- 
phecie, and knewe all secretes and all 
knowledge, yea, if I had all fayth, so that 
I could remoue mountaines and had not 
loue, I were nothing. 

3. And though I feede the poore with 
all my goods, and though I giue my body, 
that I be burned, & have not loue, it 
profiteth me nothing. 


CRANMER. 

Though I spake with the tongues of men 
and of angels, and haue no loue, I am 
euen as soundyng brasse : or as a tink- 
linge cimbal. And thoughe I coulde 
prophecye and vnderstode all secretes 
& all knoweledge ; yea, yf I haue all 
faythe, so that I can moue mountaynes 
oute of theyr places,and yet haue no loue, 
I am nothyng. And though I bestow, 
al my goodes to fede the poore. and 
though I geue my body euen that I 
burned, and yet haue no loue, it profyteth 
me nothyng. 

BISHOPS’. 

1. Though I speake with the tongues of 
menne and of Angels, and haue not chari- 
tie, I am [as] sounding brasse, or [as] a 
tincklyng Cymbale. 

2. And though I haue prophecie. and 
vnderstande al secretes, and al know¬ 
ledge : yea, yf I haue al fayth, so that I 
can remooue mountaynes, and haue not 
charitie, I am nothing. 

3. And though I bestowe al my goodes 
to feede the poore, and though I geue my 
body that I should be burned, and haue 
not charitie, it profiteth me nothing. 


. 0 


v 


. y 




APPENDIX II.-III. 


2u 2 


APPENDIX II. 

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 

As this doctrine is of late claimed to have been the universal sense of the Holy 
Catholic Church in all ages, though not recognized by formal act,* it may be 
interesting to hear Sir Thomas More’s testimony on the point. It is contained 
in a letter from Margaret Roper to her sister-in-law, detailing an interview with 
her father in the Tower She thus gives his words : 

“ For an ensample of some such manner of things, I have I trow before this 
time told you, that whether our blessed lady were conceived in original sin or 
not, was sometime in great question among the great learned men of Christen¬ 
dom. And whether it be yet decided and determined by any general council, I 
remember not. But this I remember well, that notwithstanding that the feast of 
her conception was then celebrated in the church (at the least wise, in divers pro¬ 
vinces), yet was holy St. Bernard, which, as his manifold books in the praise and 
laud of our lady do declare, was of as devout affection toward all things sounding 
toward her commendation that he thought might well be verified or suffered, as 
any man living ; yet, I say, was that holy devout man against that part of her 
praise, as appeareth well by an epistle of his, wherein he right sore and with 
great reason argueth there against, and approveth not the institution of that feast 
neither. Nor was he not of this mind alone, but many other well learned men 
with him, and right holy men too. Now there was on the other side, the blessed 
holy bishop St. Anselm, and he not alone neither, but many very well learned 
and very virtuous also with him. ’ '—More's English Works, p. 1439. 


‘APPENDIX III. 

THE SOLDIER’S BIBLE. 

An account of this Bible, prepared in 1643 by Cromwell’s order for the use of 
his army, has been published by the Jate George Livermore, Esq., Cambridge, 
Mass., from which the following particulars are quoted : 

“ The seIections ^om Scripture are divided into eighteen chapters, each with 
an appropriate heading to indicate the class of Scriptures contained therein A 

few examples of these headings or titles will sufficiently show their general char¬ 
acter. * 

1. A Souldier must not doe wickedly. 

2. A Souldier must be valiant for God’s cause. 

3. A Souldier must pray before he go to fight.” 

Mr. Livermore refers to the remarkable fact, “ that the success of Cromwell’s 
army commenced immediately on the publication of The Souldier’s Pocket Bible- 
and they never after lost a battle !” ' 


* On December 8th, 1854, it 
Catholic Church. 


was defined 


by Pope Pius IX. as an article of faith 


of the Roman 



APPENDIX III. 

i 



•3 

«g 

®g 

®g 

eg 

®g 

®g 

eg 

®g 




THE 


eg 

eg 

®g 

eg 

eg 

eg 

eg 

eg 

eg 

eg 

®g 

eg 


SOULDIERS 

Pocket Bih!e: 

Containing 1 the most (if not all) those 
places contained in lioly Scripture, 
which doe shew thequalifications of his 
inner man, that is a fit Souldier to fight 
the Lords Battels, both before he fight, 

- in the fight, and after the fight; 

Which Scriptures are reduced to se- 
verall heads, and fitly applyed to the 
Souldiers several! occasions, and so may 
supply the want of the whole Bible, 
which a Souldier cannot conveniently 
carry about him : 

And may bee also usefull for any 
Christian to meditate upon, now in 
this miserable time of Warre. 


®g 
eg 
eg 
eg 

4 

«g 
eg 
eg 
®g 
eg 
®g 
eg 
eg 
eg 

eg 

Jo*. 18 


Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy. 


This Book of the Law shall not depart out 


eg of thymouth,butthoushaltmeditatethereinday S 9 
eg and riigrht, that thou maist observeto doe accord- £® 
eg ing to all that is written therein, for then thou gs 
eg shalt make thy way prosperous, and have good g© 

sg successe. g© 

eg —------g® 

eg g© 

eg Printed at London bv G B. and R. W. for g© 

!f a. 0. 1643. | 


• f. 








284 


APPENDIX III. 


Only two copies of this curious work are now known to be in existence, one of 
•which, at the time this volume was written, was in the possession of Mr. Livermore. 
The other had but recently come to light in England. In a letter written by Mr. 
Livermore, he says on this point : “ It is quite remarkable, that the question con¬ 
cerning the ‘ Souldier’s Bible’ should be answered on this side of the Atlantic. 
English Bibliographers have never been able, till the past year, to decide what 
edition of the Bible was furnished to Cromwell’s army ; and the existence of 
‘ The Souldier’s Bible’ was unknown, until I had sent a description of it to Rev. 
Dr. Cotton, George Offor, Esq., Henry Stevens, Esq., and other eminent English 
Bibliographers. This little work was entirely unknown to them. After a long 
and diligent search in various public and private libraries, only one other copy 
has been found, and that is in the British Museum.” 

On another point of interest, in reply to an inquiry of the writer, he says : 
** The selections from Scripture are, in almost every instance, taken from the Gene¬ 
van Version ; but in some cases, a very few, King James’ Version has been used, 
in a few cases, the phraseology varies slightly from all the English Versions 
which I have examined.” 

This is an interesting corroborative testimony to the preference of our Puritan 
forefathers for the Genevan Version (see p. 204), so late as 1643. 

Note. —During the late Civil War, a Special Pocket Bible was presented and widely distributed 
among the Union armies, containing the same passages as the above, but in the language of the 
common version. 


PUBLICATIONS OF I. K. FUNK & CO., 

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AN INVALUABLE WORK MOST CAREFULLY PREPARED, -©a 

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5 

Thomas Armitage, D.D., New York, lias just written us: 

You are rendering a great service to poor pastors by your cheap publications 
and none greater than by “ Godet” and “ Van Doren ” on Luke, the Gospel of 
Prayer. These Commentaries are specially suggestive, embodying most of the 
latest and best results of Biblical philology and the critical investigations with a 
mine of Homiletical and practical matter. Thank you. 


VAN BOREN’S 

Suggestive Commentary on Luke. 


k New Edition, with Wide-ruled Margins for Memoranda and Notes. 


This most admirable Commentary, which we have determined to donate to the 
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REV. DR. FAUSSET, the well-known English Commentator, 

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“ The notes in smaller type contain the criticism of the Greek text, and various explanations of 
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AFAC-SIMILE of a portion of a letter 'written by Rev. C. II. Spurgeon, to Messrs. 
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Ploughman’s Pictuhes. This book is a continuation of John Ploughman’s Celebrated 
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